RHC's....don't miss this opportunity!!!

2012-2013 Rural Health Clinic HPP Grant Kick off & Conference call announcement

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 at 1:30 PM.

 

This will be the agenda for Tuesday's call.

 

• Greetings and welcome to the 2012-2013 grant period
• Overview and review of each of the grant deliverables
• Question and answer period
• Final question and answer opportunity
• Conclusion of the call

 

In order to join the call, please dial 1-877-820-7831 and enter your participant passcode 263859# a few minutes prior to the scheduled time. I have also attached written instructions on how to access the call so please refer to that for further details. We recommend that as many of you as possible participate in the conference call considering the changes and significance of new deliverables for this year.

 

Please bear in mind as we commence the grant period that the end of the cycle will be April 19, 2013 close of business. Any and all reimbursement requests will need to be submitted by that date.

Thanks so much for your time and we look forward to working with you over the course of this coming year.

 

 

For more information on how you can participate and take advantage of this opportunity please contact Ron Seedorf, Emergency Preparedness Manager at the Colorado Rural Health Center at rs@coruralhealth.org

 

 

CMS Program Integrity Modules

CMS is promoting two new program integrity modules. The modules are located on the Medscape website here and are also attached to this email. The first module, “Reducing Medicare and Medicaid Fraud and Abuse: Protecting Practices and Patients,” relates to CMS’ provider-focused materials in the Fraud Awareness & Prevention Month Toolkit. It is posted here . The second module, “How CMS Is Fighting Fraud: Major Program Integrity Initiatives,” describes strategies that CMS has undertaken to detect and to prevent fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. This module is posted  here. Continuing medical education (CME) credit can be earned for any user registered as a doctor or health care professional. Medscape accounts are free and users do not have to be health care professionals to register for one. Registration is on the landing page of www.medscape.com.

JH Implementation Alert

Attention Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Providers - IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED TO AVOID PAYMENT DISRUPTION
If you are currently enrolled for EFT with TrailBlazer Health Enterprises (TrailBlazer), be on the lookout for a letter from Novitas Solutions, Inc. requesting a CMS-588 EFT Authorization Agreement (“Agreement”). Please read this letter carefully for instructions for completing and sending the Agreement. Novitas Solutions is required to obtain a new Agreement in conjunction with the MAC JH transition to continue issuing EFT payments post-cutover. The cutover dates for these segments are October 29, 2012 for Part A providers and November 19, 2012 for Part B providers. Failure to complete and submit the Agreement may result in a delay or interruption of your Medicare payments. 

NOTE: You are not required to complete a CMS-855 Enrollment form as part of this process.
Should you have questions or need assistance, see our JH transition website or call us at 1-877-235-8073. Please be sure to identify yourself as a JH provider to expedite the handling of your call.
https://www.novitas-solutions.com/transition/jh/index.html

CMS OPPS 2013 Proposed Rule

The CMS OPPS 2013 Proposed Rule is available online by clicking here. Among other things, CAHs should review Section X which describes the proposed policies for the Supervision of Outpatient Services in Hospitals and CAHs. CMS is accepting comments on the proposed rules until September 4th.

What is a Health Insurance CO-OP?

A $69 million federal start up loan Friday stamps an emphatic answer on the lingering question of what exactly is a health insurance "co-op," as the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union launches the concept for Colorado. To read the Denver Post article in full click here

Populist health insurance co-op for Colorado wins $69 million federal loan

Waste Management for Healthcare Facilities

When: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2012  8:00 a.m. – 3:45 p.m.

Where: COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT
Sabin/Cleere Conference Rooms
4300 Cherry Creek Dr. So.
Denver, CO 80246

Prepare your facility for hazardous waste inspections being conducted by the Colorado
Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) at health care facilities. Join
representatives from CDPHE and local hospitals for an introduction to hazardous and solid waste
requirements as they apply to hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care facilities. This workshop is designed for anyone responsible for identifying, collecting, or managing hospital
waste, including personnel from administration, pharmacy, nursing, laboratory, and facilities
maintenance.

Space is filling up fast!!! Are you registered?

Workshop: Turning ICD-9 into ICD-10
Presented by Todd Welter, MS, CPC and Susan Whitney, CPC, CPC-I.

Increased level of specificity in provider documentation is at the heart of the ICD-10 transition. All providers will need to be trained! Incomplete documentation will result in delays with claims submission and ultimately impact your revenue and cash flow! We will take the top diagnosis codes used in a rural health practice/setting and help you, and ultimately your providers, understand what changes will need to be made in the provider’s documentation to maintain timely and accurate claims submission and claims payments

To register please click on one of the four locations below. If you have any questions please contact Courtnay Ryan at cr@coruralhealth.org Hope to see you there!!

• September 18th - Holyoke, CO
• September 20th - Del Norte, CO
• September 25th - Grand Junction, CO
• September 28th - Webinar

Keefe Memorial Hospital is seeking a dynamic Chief Executive Officer to lead their team!

For more information on this opportunity please click here

Enhance Your Ability to Care for Others!

With support from Retirement Research Foundation, Life Quality Institute is proud to offer palliative care education days in several rural sites around Colorado. Each day will cover three thematically linked topics for healthcare professionals in all settings and, in some cases, for family caregivers and the community. The Prepare to Care workshops will be facilitated by our expert staff educators. Click on the links below to see complete descriptions and registration information.

For more information please click here

Has Your CAH Joined MBQIP?

Over 75% of CAHs across the country are participating in the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy’s (ORHP) Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP). This CAH initiative takes a proactive and visionary approach to ensure CAHs are well-equipped and prepared to measure and demonstrate quality. Through this program, ORHP will utilize the data CAHs submit to CMS for benchmarking, demonstrating improvements, sharing best practices, and generating reports to aid CAHs and states in quality improvement activities. There is information about MBQIP in this YouTube video from HRSA’s Senior Health Policy Advisor, Paul Moore. To sign up for MBQIP, contact jd@coruralhealth.org.

Register now for the fall ICD 10 Workshops!

Workshop: Turning ICD-9 into ICD-10
Presented by Todd Welter, MS, CPC and Susan Whitney, CPC, CPC-I.

Increased level of specificity in provider documentation is at the heart of the ICD-10 transition. All providers will need to be trained! Incomplete documentation will result in delays with claims submission and ultimately impact your revenue and cash flow! We will take the top diagnosis codes used in a rural health practice/setting and help you, and ultimately your providers, understand what changes will need to be made in the provider’s documentation to maintain timely and accurate claims submission and claims payments

To register please click on one of the four locations below. If you have any questions please contact Courtnay Ryan at cr@coruralhealth.org Hope to see you there!!

• September 18th - Holyoke, CO
• September 20th - Del Norte, CO
• September 25th - Grand Junction, CO
• September 28th - Webinar

Updated Resources from TrailBlazer

TrailBlazer has recently updated its CAH and RHC Manuals. To access the manuals, click here. TrailBlazer has also posted the Q&A from its July 11 Rural Health Ask the Contractor Teleconference. To access the Q&A, click here. Finally, TrailBlazer will be offering a web-based training on 8/14/12 covering ABN’s. For information on the web-based training, click here.

Funding Opportunity – Kaiser IHI Community Benefit Program

CRHC is pleased to offer this program which provides eligible rural clinic leaders conference registration scholarships and travel support funding to participate in IHI courses. Funding is limited, apply today! For more information, click here.

Webinar to Learn How to Apply to the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative

You are invited to participate in an upcoming webinar about the Comprehensive Primary Care initiative:
July 16, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. MT - Everything You Wanted to Know to Apply to the CPC Initiative

Hosted by CMS. Click HERE to access the webinar, no registration necessary.

The CPC Initiative will test a more robust primary care service delivery model supported by enhanced payments, whereby Medicare, commercial and State health insurance plans will offer non-visit based payments to primary care doctors who better coordinate care for their patients. Details can be viewed on the Innovation Center CPC page and the CPC practice solicitation.

CMS will be offering a $20 (average) per beneficiary per month care management fee on behalf of aligned Medicare beneficiaries who receive care in selected practices, as well as an opportunity to earn shared savings; aligned private payers are each offering their own monthly support payments and an opportunity to earn shared savings to practices in their networks who are selected by CMS.

Approximately 75 primary care practices in each of the seven designated markets listed below will be selected to participate in the CPC initiative:

Arkansas – Statewide
Colorado – Statewide
New Jersey – Statewide
New York – Capital District-Hudson Valley Region
Ohio and Kentucky– Cincinnati-Dayton Region
Oklahoma – Greater Tulsa Region
Oregon – Statewide

Applications from primary care practices in these geographic areas are currently being accepted. The first step of the application is completing the Application Pre-Screening tool. Upon completing the tool, applicants meeting the minimum level eligibility requirements will receive an email with further details about how to complete the rest of the application process.

If you are unable to join the webinar, more information about the CPC initiative is available at Innovation Center's CPC webpage, including the slides, audio recording and transcript from a previously-held webinar.

We are here to help! If you have questions about the CPC initiative or the content of the practice application, email us at CPCi@cms.hhs.gov. If you are having technical problems with the online application, please email CPCiSupport@telligen.org.

The CMS Innovation Center was created by the Affordable Care Act to test innovative payment and service delivery models that have the potential to reduce program expenditures while preserving or enhancing the quality of care. More information is at innovation.cms.gov.

CMS 3-Day Payment Window FAQs

CMS posted today to their website 43 new Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) related to the MLN Matters® Article #MM7502, “Bundling of Payments for Services Provided to Outpatients Who Later Are Admitted as Inpatient: 3-Day payment Window and the Impacts on Wholly Owned or Wholly Operated Physician Offices.”

QHi Benchmarking Tool – Back to Basics Webinar

The next QHi Back to Basics session is scheduled for Wednesday, August 15 from 1:00pm-2:00pm MST. During this webinar, QHi administrators will review the QHi system and walk-through the basics of using the tool. QHi is an online benchmarking tool geared towards CAHs and is available to Colorado CAHs at no charge through CRHC’s Flex Grant. Over 200 CAHs in 16 states use QHi. For more information, contact jd@coruralhealth.org.

Faith-based & Neighborhood Partnership ACA Webinar: July 12--INVITATION

July 12 at 3:00 pm Mountain Time

Interactive Webinar on the Health Care Law - The Affordable Care Act.
This webinar is designed for faith and community leaders in the following
states:
(HHS Region 8): Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming
To RSVP for the Webinar, please click here
To participate by conference call dial 1-877-568-4108 Access Code: 900-191-806, Pin #
Hosted by HHS Regional Director, Marguerite Salazar, and the HHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
Please send questions in advance to ACA101@hhs.gov

If you are in another state, please see our webinar schedule here

CMS Proposed Policy and Payment Changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for CY2013

On July 6, 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule that would update payment policies and payment rates for services furnished under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) on or after Jan. 1, 2013. The proposed rule also proposes changes to several of the quality reporting initiatives that are associated with MPFS payments – the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), the Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program, and the PQRS-EHR Incentive Pilot – as well as changes to the Physician Compare tool on the Medicare.gov website. Finally, the proposed rule includes proposals for implementing the physician value-based payment modifier (Value Modifier) required by the Affordable Care Act that would affect payments to physician groups based on the quality and cost of care they furnish to beneficiaries enrolled in the traditional Medicare Fee-for-Service program. For a summary of the rule and link to the entire proposed regulation, click here.

Register Now for the Fall ICD 10 Workshops!!

Workshop: Turning ICD-9 into ICD-10
Presented by Todd Welter, MS, CPC and Susan Whitney, CPC, CPC-I.

Increased level of specificity in provider documentation is at the heart of the ICD-10 transition. All providers will need to be trained! Incomplete documentation will result in delays with claims submission and ultimately impact your revenue and cash flow! We will take the top diagnosis codes used in a rural health practice/setting and help you, and ultimately your providers, understand what changes will need to be made in the provider’s documentation to maintain timely and accurate claims submission and claims payments

To register please click on one of the four locations below. If you have any questions please contact Courtnay Ryan at cr@coruralhealth.org Hope to see you there!!

• September 18th - Holyoke, CO
• September 20th - Del Norte, CO
• September 25th - Grand Junction, CO
• September 28th - Webinar

CMS OPPS 2013 Proposed Rule

On July 6, 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule that would update payment policies and rates for both hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) for calendar year (CY) 2013. The rule includes information for rural providers including proposed updates to the supervision issue for hospital outpatient therapeutic services in CAHs and small rural hospitals. To access the CMS fact sheet about the proposed rule, click here. To access the entire proposed rule, including the executive summary of the proposed updates, click here. CMS is accepting comments on the proposed rule until September 4.

HRSA Announcement: Area Resource File Updated

HRSA announces that the 2011-2012 version of the Area Resource File (ARF) has been updated.

Established in 1975, the ARF is a health resource information database used extensively by researchers, planners and policy makers to obtain data on all counties in the United States.

Updates include: health workforce (e.g., physicians by specialty, dentists, physician assistants, certified nurse midwives); health professions shortage areas; health facilities (e.g., hospitals, rural health clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, nursing facilities); health expenditures (e.g., hospital facilities expenditures, Medicare Advantage payment rates); demographics (e.g., population by race, poverty, income, health insurance, and Medicaid eligibles); and more.

The ARF contains more than 6,000 variables with 3,225 records from more than 50 sources, including the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, U.S. Census Bureau, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and National Center for Health Statistics. The file lists the types of data and years for which the individual data elements are available, and provides links to more detailed content. Also available is a link to the Health Resources County Comparison Tool, which was built from ARF data and facilitates comparison of ARF data across counties.

The 2011-2012 file can now be downloaded at no cost in ASCII and Access formats. Visit www.arf.hrsa.gov for a complete listing of data and instructions for downloading the file. The ARF is also available in HRSA’s Data Warehouse at http://datawarehouse.hrsa.gov/ARF.aspx.

Under a new contract effective July 1, HRSA will be expanding the ARF to include state and national level data. In addition, new data elements, assessment tools and mapping capability will make the ARF even more valuable to researchers and consumers.

Register Now for the Fall ICD 10 Workshops!!

Workshop: Turning ICD-9 into ICD-10
Presented by Todd Welter, MS, CPC and Susan Whitney, CPC, CPC-I.

Increased level of specificity in provider documentation is at the heart of the ICD-10 transition. All providers will need to be trained! Incomplete documentation will result in delays with claims submission and ultimately impact your revenue and cash flow! We will take the top diagnosis codes used in a rural health practice/setting and help you, and ultimately your providers, understand what changes will need to be made in the provider’s documentation to maintain timely and accurate claims submission and claims payments

To register please click on one of the four locations below. If you have any questions please contact Courtnay Ryan at cr@coruralhealth.org Hope to see you there!!

• September 18th - Holyoke, CO
• September 20th - Del Norte, CO
• September 25th - Grand Junction, CO
• September 28th - Webinar

Pikes Peak Regional Hospital Wildfire Update

Colorado Rural Health Center would like to recognize the hard work of those individuals fighting forest fires throughout the state of Colorado this July 4th holiday. During this difficult time, a few Critical Access Hospitals, which work closely with CRHC, have been threatened by these events.

Of those affected were Pikes Peak Regional Hospital, a small 15-bed Critical Access Hospital and clinic located in Woodland Park, about half an hour west from Colorado Springs. PPRH was previously on standby for evacuation. Yesterday, all departments of PPRH were reopened. "What an event. We had to close the inpatient and ancillary services except for the Emergency Department. It feels like déjà vu since I went through a lot of the same for the Hayman Fire (ten years ago)" said Trish Harris, long-time Colorado resident and Quality/Risk Management Director for PPRH last Tuesday.

Colorado Rural Health Center will continue to provide support to those Critical Access Hospitals and their patients affected by these fires.

CRHC’s mission is to enhance healthcare services in Colorado by providing information education, linkages, tools and energy toward addressing rural healthcare issues.

National Provider Call: Medicare Shared Savings Program and Advance Payment Model Application Process — Register Now

On October 20, 2011, CMS issued a final rule under the Affordable Care Act to establish the Medicare Shared Savings Program (Shared Savings Program), along with a notice for the Advance Payment Model that will provide additional support to physician-led and rural Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) participating in the Shared Savings Program. These two initiatives will help providers participate in ACOs to improve quality of care for Medicare patients. On Monday, July 16, 2012, from 1:30-3 pm ET CMS is hosting a National Provider Call, where subject matter experts will provide an overview and updates to the Shared Savings Program application and Advance Payment Model application processes for the January 1, 2013 Shared Savings Program start date. A question and answer session will follow the presentations. The Shared Savings Program Application and the Advance Payment Model web pages have important information, dates, and materials on the application process. Call participants are encouraged to review the applications and materials prior to the call.

Target Audience: Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) providers

Registration Information: In order to receive call-in information, you must register for the call on the CMS Upcoming National Provider Calls web page. Registration will close at 12pm on the day of the call or when available space has been filled; no exceptions will be made, so please register early.

Presentation: The presentation for this call will be posted prior to the call on the FFS National Provider Calls web page. In addition, a link to the slide presentation will be emailed to all registrants on the day of the call.

Continuing education credit may be awarded for participation in certain CMS National Provider Calls. Visit the Continuing Education Credit Notification web page to learn more.

TrailBlazer Archived Web-Based Training – Observation Services

To access the archived web-based training on Observation Services presented by TrailBlazer, click here. For more information about TrailBlazer’s web-based trainings, click here.

Life Quality Institute seeks your opinion on advanced care planning and advanced directives

Please take 1 to 5 minutes of your time to answer a VERY SHORT survey to assess awareness and use of the Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment program in Colorado—the state’s newest advance care planning too, established by the Colorado legislature in 2010.

Your input will be very valuable in determining next steps for training and procedure refinement. We would very much appreciate your responses by July 13 – if you complete the survey by then and provide us with your email address, we will enter you into a drawing to receive a copy of Dr. Ira Byock’s new book, The Best Care Possible. (Emails will be reported separate from responses to the questions, so your answers will be kept confidential.

To take the survey, please click on this link: http://questionpro.com/t/ACxvsZNt5W
Thank you!!

340B Drug Pricing Program Resources

The sites below offer resources for 340B participating CAHs as well as non-participating hospitals that want to learn more about the benefits of participating in 340B.  

• 340B General Information http://www.hrsa.gov/opa/introduction.htm 
• Prime Vendor https://www.340bpvp.com/controller.html
• Pharmacy Support Services Center http://pssc.aphanet.org/