MHA Today | August 2, 2021

Staff Contact: Mary Becker

The MHA Board of Trustees has selected Jon D. Doolittle as its next President and CEO, effective in late October, after an extensive national search. Doolittle comes to the association after 11 years at Mosaic Medical Center – Albany. He succeeds Herb B. Kuhn, who will begin his retirement after leading the association as MHA’s President and CEO since September 2009.

In announcing Doolittle’s selection, Charlie Shields, President and CEO of Truman Medical Centers, Inc. and Chair of the MHA Search Committee said, “The opportunity to bring someone who has such wide-ranging health care experiences, combined with a true passion for the mission and people in Missouri’s hospitals, made Jon the obvious choice for this role. We couldn’t be more pleased and are confident that he will take this outstanding and respected association to new levels of accomplishment.”

Doolittle will be the sixth CEO to lead MHA, which was founded in 1922. He currently serves as President of Mosaic Medical Center – Albany and Chair of the MHA Board of Trustees. A press release was issued today.

Staff Contact: Andrew Wheeler

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently released the fiscal year 2022 Medicare payment and policy updates for the skilled nursing facility and inpatient psychiatric facility prospective payment systems.  MHA published an issue brief for SNF and IPF with additional details.

Staff Contact: Andrew Wheeler

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the fiscal year 2022 Medicare payment and policy updates for the acute inpatient and long-term care hospital prospective payment systems. CMS is estimating that Medicare IPPS payments will increase by $2.3 billion and LTCH IPPS payments will increase $42 million in FY 2022. MHA soon will release issue briefs for IPPS and LTCH.

Staff Contact: Carissa Van Hunnik or Jackie Gatz

An increasing number of Missouri hospitals are experiencing hospital capacity and patient placement concerns as both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19-related hospitalizations continue to rise in several regions of the state. To maintain statewide situational awareness of hospital bed availability and address member requests for timely information to assist the facilitation of patient transfer processes, a daily Bed Availability Query remains active in EMResource until further notice. While this information is a point-in-time assessment reflective of when the information was entered, the query remains readily available for updates and viewing to all registered users.  A query reminder notification is sent to hospital EMResource contacts each morning at 8 a.m., and it remains critical that hospitals make every effort to update information in a timely manner to provide a consistent source of information to address surge and patient placement needs throughout the state.

Staff Contact: Shawn Billings

The Missouri Department of Mental Health, Missouri Behavioral Health Council and JRI Crisis Response Workgroup are hosting a lunch and learn series to explore a variety of programs available throughout the state, which are aimed at improving and enhancing Missouri’s crisis response system. The series takes place at noon every Wednesday with the first session, “911 Diversion,” taking place Wednesday, Aug. 4. Registration is not required. To access the webinar, use the Zoom info below.

Meeting ID: 838 0848 1830
Passcode: 848093
Phone: +1 312 626 6799