September 11, 2020

MHA Today is provided as a service to members of the Missouri Hospital Association. Additional information is available online at MHAnet.

COVID-19 Updates

For the latest updates and most current information on coronavirus disease 2019, visit MHA’s website.

Insights

Nineteen years ago today, our nation’s view of safety — forged over generations, and based in part on the vastness of the great oceans on our east and west coasts — changed forever. On that day, I was traveling domestically and was stranded in the Midwest on route to Washington, D.C. As the nation’s air transportation system and other critical assets were sidelined, my companions and I rented a car and drove to Washington.

The events of Sept. 11, 2001, continue to imprint our lives. For younger Americans, COVID-19 will leave a similar indelible mark on their memory.

Next week, MHA will engage in a virtual federal advocacy “visit” to discuss our agenda with members of the Missouri delegation. Although many of the items included in our discussions will be related to the COVID-19 response and recovery, there are some very important non-COVID-19 items as well.

It’s clear that our early response to the crisis put many hospitals in financial jeopardy. Now more than ever, we need stability. Two issues we will be discussing with members of Congress and staff relate directly to finance and could have significant implications for safety-net providers.

Pharmaceutical companies have been unilaterally imposing restrictions on the 340B prescription drug discount program standards. Not only is this costly, their success could influence other pharmaceutical companies to push the traditional program standards and circumvent the rules. This boundary-pushing appears to be an attempt to test whether the administration will protect the program and whether the manufacturers can curtail the use of contract pharmacies in the program. Although an administrative fix is possible, we are educating our delegation about the threat and encouraging congressional action absent regulatory relief.

Significant cuts to Disproportionate Share Hospital payments — included in the Affordable Care Act and subsequently delayed year after year — are looming. Without action by Congress before December, these cuts could devastate safety-net hospitals and influence the finances of nearly all Missouri hospitals. We’ll encourage Congress to again delay the reductions.

Through a variety of CARES Act programs, Congress and the administration were able to mitigate some of the immediate financial threats to hospitals. However, longer term challenges remain, and the crisis isn’t over. Some CARES Act funding remains uncommitted and could support the challenges of a “second wave” or an influenza-COVID-19 crisis for hospitals. And, how, when or whether the program’s relief payments will come due, could create a second hospital financial crisis. We will be expressing appreciation for the timely and necessary help for hospitals and reminding our delegation that the crisis has not abated.

Seeing the world through the COVID-19 lens has expanded the acceptance of telemedicine as an essential tool in delivering care. We will be urging the Missouri delegation to keep the waivers that have proven so essential in place and make access permanent.

Among the early challenges post-9/11 was threat assessment and identification of critical infrastructure. The Hospital Preparedness Program — which has been essential to our approach to managing the COVID-19 crisis — is a result of post-9/11 preparedness and response efforts.

What Congress has done and will do in future COVID-19 response and recovery programs will create the system that will meet our next crisis. Hospitals remain a part of the nation’s critical infrastructure. Now is the time to advocate for a strong health care system as part of the nation’s overall strategy for recovery.

That’s what we’ll be talking about next week.

Send me an email to let me know what you are thinking.

Herb B. Kuhn
MHA President and CEO

In This Issue

MHA Seeks Clarification On COVID-19 Monitoring Of Health Care Workers
Commonwealth Fund Releases 2020 Scorecard On State Health System Performance
UnitedHealthcare Announces Laboratory Test Registry Protocol
MLN Connects Provider eNews Available
APS Offers AuthorityRx 340B Developments Webinar

Advocate
state and federal health policy developments

MHA Seeks Clarification On COVID-19 Monitoring Of Health Care Workers
Staff Contact: Jane Drummond or Sarah Willson

MHA wrote a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma asking for clarification of the CMS policy on COVID-19 monitoring of health care workers. MHA learned of CMS surveyors in other states citing hospitals who have a self-attestation process for monitoring temperatures of health care workers. MHA will continue to monitor the situation and advocate on behalf of hospitals.

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Commonwealth Fund Releases 2020 Scorecard On State Health System Performance
Staff Contact: Andrew Wheeler

The Commonwealth Fund released the 2020 Scorecard on State Health System Performance. The report ranks states based on various metrics, including a composite ranking. The composite ranking is based on how well each state performs in avoidable use/cost, healthy lives, income disparity, prevention treatment and access/affordability. Missouri ranked 48th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report also ranks states based on commercial payment rates. Missouri ranked 35th out of 48 states, which indicates that 34 states have higher commercial rates than Missouri.

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Regulatory News
the latest actions of agencies monitoring health care

UnitedHealthcare Announces Laboratory Test Registry Protocol
Staff Contact: Andrew Wheeler

UnitedHealthcare announced that effective Jan. 1, 2021, “in-network, freestanding and outpatient laboratory claims for most laboratory testing services must contain your laboratory’s unique test code.” UHC also states that claims must match a corresponding laboratory test registration. The new laboratory test registry protocol applies to Medicare Advantage, UHC commercial and UHC community plan networks. To ensure compliance, UHC recommends that labs should register their lab tests before Dec. 1. FAQs are available on both the tool and the protocol. UHC also is hosting a series of webinars beginning Tuesday, Sept. 15.

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MLN Connects Provider eNews Available
Staff Contact: Andrew Wheeler

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued updates to MLN Connects Provider eNews. eNews includes information about national provider calls, meetings, events, announcements and other MLN educational product updates. The latest issue provides updates and summaries of the following.

• Open Payments: adding five provider types in 2021
• PEPPERs for short-term acute care hospitals
• CMS Care Compare empowers patients when making important health care decisions
• Understanding your remittance advice reports

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APS Offers AuthorityRx 340B Developments Webinar
Staff Contact: Bryant McNally

APS is offering an informative webinar on 340B developments with speaker Aaron Lott, Ph.D., MPH, MBA, CEO and Founder of AuthorityRx. AuthorityRx specializes in 340B compliance and referral savings capture, helps organizations tighten 340B guideline adherence to withstand potential Health Resources & Services Administration audits, and uses automated solutions to identify unrealized 340B savings opportunities available through existing referral relationships.

Registration is available for the following dates at the respective links.

• 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15
• 2 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13

For additional information, contact Dennis George at 913-327-8730 or dennis.george@apskc.org.

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Did You Miss An Issue Of MHA Today?

Consider This …

About 3.6 million U.S. youth reported current (in the past 30 days) e-cigarette use in 2020, reflecting a decline from 5.4 million in 2019.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention