MHA Today | December 9, 2020

Staff Contact: Andrew Wheeler

Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued final rules and a fact sheet for the Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Centers. The rule includes updates and changes to the following.

• Inpatient Only list
• payment for drugs purchased under the 340B Program
• exempt certain procedures from site-of-service claim denials
• changes to the level of supervision of outpatient therapeutic services
• changes to list of ASC-covered surgical procedures

MHA published an issue brief with additional details.

Staff Contact: Brian Kinkade

The Governmental Accountability Office issued a report on Medicaid provider taxes that documents states’ increasing reliance on provider taxes and local government funding to finance their Medicaid programs. The report suggests that by decreasing the effective reimbursement providers receive, the federal share of Medicaid program payments is increased above the matching percentage prescribed by law. The GAO recommends the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services gather complete and consistent data on the sources states use to pay for their Medicaid programs.

Staff Contact: Shane VanOverschelde

Subscribers of the HIDI Premier Reporting Package now have access to the 2019 Annual Survey Seven-Year Trends report. The report displays tables and graphs depicting seven-year trends of a comprehensive set of financial metrics, as reported on the most recent Annual Licensing Survey. Reports are categorized by various peer groups, such as bed size, geographic region, ownership type, hospital type and congressional district. The report can be found on HIDI Analytic Advantage^® in the following location, with the following file name.

• File Location: Finance and Policy > Premier Reports
• File Name: MO0000_7-Year_Trends_2019 (12 2020).pdf

Hospitals interested in subscribing to the HIDI Premier Reporting Package should review the package information. Current subscribers with questions about downloading files should contact HIDI.

Staff Contact: Cerise Seifert

Data for the October 2020 monthly utilization report have been posted on HIDI Analytic Advantage^® and are available to download for distribution or placement in a network folder. HIDI Analytic Advantage^® PLUS has been updated to include this data. Contacts from participating hospitals have been notified by email, and they may download and save the Excel worksheet to a secure network location or PC. The data are encrypted on the site and also during the transmission from HIDI. Once the data have been transferred, it must be secured according to the hospital’s security procedures. November 2020 data now are being collected and are scheduled to be available Tuesday, Jan. 5.

Staff Contact: Kelsey Hussey

On Nov. 16, organizations throughout the state signed up to participate in MHA’s collaborative focusing on neonatal abstinence syndrome. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that NAS is a multifactorial public health crisis. In the U.S., NAS incidence increased more than fivefold in a decade, rising from 2.8 per 1,000 births in 2004 to 14.4 per 1,000 births in 2014. In Missouri, the reported NAS rate climbed year over year from 2012 to 2015.

Throughout the next two years, participating organizations will focus on developing improvements in care related to the care of substance-exposed newborns, including keeping the mother-infant dyad intact; incorporating the Eat, Sleep, Console functional assessment model into practice; and establishing safe plans of care for the mother and infant. Teams will utilize an evidence-based implementation guide as the framework for their work.

MHA is excited to collaborate with the Missouri Telehealth Network Show-Me ECHO, “Mothers, Infants & NAS,” for the educational aspect of the collaborative. Registration for this ECHO is open and does not require participation in the NAS Collaborative to join.

Staff Contact: Kelsey Hussey

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement is offering its next improvement sprint, Reducing Harm from Hypertension, as part of its Better Maternal Outcomes Rapid Improvement Network. This Network is a free initiative that connects hospitals and providers in the U.S. who pledge to improve health outcomes by delivering safe, equitable, respectful care for all. Participating organizations will learn how to spread best practices and protocols through a variety of shared learning formats, as well as practical, how-to guidance. IHI is hosting an informational call at noon CST Thursday, Dec. 10, and registration is required.