Sandy's Corner:
As the end of the year approaches, one of the most important pieces of legislation that could have a significant impact on healthcare facilities in the upcoming year is S.2741, the Rural Telemedicine Enhancing Community Health (TECH) Act of 2009. Introduced by Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), TECH includes a major provision that addresses the problem of Telehealth credentialing and privileging by proxy. The help of each of us is needed to encourage other Senators to join him in cosponsoring this bill.
The Senator's bill contains three provisions to expand Telehealth programs:
- Establishes Telehealth pilot projects to analyze clinical outcomes and cost effectiveness associated with Telehealth services in a variety of geographic areas;
- Expands access to Telestroke services through the definition of "originating site" to include urban sites and defines new stroke Telehealth services for coverage; and
- Improves access to Telehealth services at Indian Health Service facilities and federally qualified health centers by expanding access to store-and-forward and videoconferencing technologies.
A critical aspect of TECH is that it requires the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to allow remote credentialing and privileging. This language aims to decrease the administrative and financial burden that is often caused by requiring Telehealth providers to be individually credentialed and privileged by all hospitals in which they administer care, via Telehealth.
It is important that you contact your Senators and urge them to support Telehealth by cosponsoring S. 2741.
As the holiday season approaches this is my wish for you: peace of mind, prosperity through the year, happiness that multiplies health for you and yours, fun around every corner, energy to chase your dreams, joy to fill your holidays!
(Sandy Kukla is Senior Program Manager for GCI ConnectMD in Seattle, WA)
Congratulations to Virginia Mason Medical Center - one of the Leapfrog top 45 hospitals in the country
The survey is the only national, public comparison of hospitals on key issues including mortality rates for certain common procedures, infection rates, safety practices, and measures of efficiency. Qualifying criteria for Leapfrog's Top Hospital Award list remain virtually the same as 2008, with one added dimension: once hospitals demonstrate top quality, they must also rise to the top of the list on efficiency. "This year's class of Top Hospitals not only hits the mark in areas such as medication error prevention and preventing ICU deaths, but they also use their resources wisely, providing excellent and efficient outcomes for patients," said Leah Binder, CEO, The Leapfrog Group. "Regardless of what happens to health care reform, these hospitals are the future This year's top urban hospitals are located in 13 states - Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington.
HHS to launch $235 million health IT grant program
The Department of Health and Human Services is establishing a $235 million grant program to help healthcare providers improve their use of health information technology and data exchange services. According to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Beacon Community Program (BCP) will give "communities of healthcare providers" a chance to provide more-efficient, more-complete care to their patients. BCP includes $220 million for health IT grant programs in 15 communities, and $15 million for technical assistance to those communities, and an evaluation of the program. To qualify for the program, applicants must be a non-profit or government entity serving a diverse geographic area, build off existing health IT infrastructure and demonstrate cost savings, have higher-than-published electronic health record adoption rates, and work with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's effort to expand use of health IT. Additional information and applications will be available soon at here.
Read the full news release
ATA releases remote mental health services delivery guidelines
Guidelines for the delivery of remote mental health services are now available from the American Telemedicine Association. The guidelines are designed to form the standard of care for such services and will be the basis for the development and practice of uniform, effective, safe and sustainable telemental health practices, the association said. They will also serve as an operational reference and an educational tool to aid in providing appropriate care for patients. The guidelines, available for free from the association's Web site focus on the use of two-way, interactive videoconferencing in the delivery of telemental health services, and comparison of outcomes between various approaches used in its delivery.
Read the full article
CMS Issues Final Rule for Outpatient Prospective Payment System
On November 20, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule in the Federal Register [74FR60316] for the Outpatient Prospective Payment System and the Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment System. Among other areas this final rule with comment period, CMS describes the changes to the amounts and factors used to determine the payment rates for Medicare hospital outpatient services paid under the prospective payment system. These changes are applicable to services furnished on or after January 1, 2010. In addition, this final rule updates the revised Medicare ambulatory surgical center payment system to implement applicable statutory requirements and changes arising from our continuing experience with this system. These changes are applicable to services furnished on or after January 1, 2010.
Read the full article
Security Rules Put Providers on Notice by Benjamin Wright
With the passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), Congress has imposed a demanding new data security regime on all healthcare providers and organizations. Congress expects key healthcare industry stakeholders (hospitals, doctors' offices, insurance companies, and other entities) to track and account for each and every time protected electronic patient information is accessed. To comply with the data security and patient notification provisions called for by HITECH, covered entities will be expected to enact policies and procedures (such as application-layer logs and audit trails) that enable them to track when, how, and by whom protected patient health information is accessed.
Mr. Wright is an attorney with Messaging Architects. This feature is adapted from an article that originally appeared online at http://benjaminwright.us.
Read the full article
Standards and Evidence Base for Telemental Health Practice - Free Webinar
In conjunction with the Midwest Alliance for Health Education (MAHE), Phil Hirsch, PhD – Director of Access Psychiatry, LLC – will present two Webinars regarding recently released guidelines for telemental health practice and the research literature that provides the evidence base therefore. In October 2009 the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) released these two documents following a careful process of development and professional- and public review.
Dr. Hirsch is a frequent presenter in the area of telemental health practice. In these Webinars he will review the content of the ATA documents and illustrate their application to development and operation of a telemental health practice. Webinar dates are January 7 and February 4, 2010 – each presentation is one-hour in length.
Participation is at no cost for ConnectMD Network members. Click here for more information about the Webinars, links to the documents for pre-Webinar review, and to register.
To submit your stories, tips or news items:
If you would like to submit, please respond by email to skukla@gci.com. Please give us your full contact information, a brief description of your submission and attach your Word, PDF and appropriate files or you may contact us by phone at: (866) 221-4841. When we add your submission we will also include an outside link to your organization’s website.
