PA Safety Net Admin, Author at Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

Nurses Seek Nurse-to-Patient Staffing Ratio Law

Pennsylvania’s nurses have rallied in Harrisburg for legislation to establish legal guidelines for nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in the state.
The proposal supported by the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association calls for individual hospitals to establish their own guidelines on a unit-by-unit basis.
The most recent nurse staffing bill in the Pennsylvania General Assembly was referred to the House Committee on Health in the fall of 2011.
Read more about the nurses’ rally in Harrisburg and their objectives in this Central Penn Business Journal article.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-04-25T06:00:44+00:00April 25th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

DPW Updates Fee Schedule

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (DPW) has updated its Medical Assistance fee-for-service fee schedule for a variety of physician services, podiatrist services, surgical services, and more.
See a complete list of changes here , in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-04-23T06:00:49+00:00April 23rd, 2013|Pennsylvania Bulletin, Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

DPW Publishes DSH Notice

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare has published a notice detailing its final allocations for FY 2013 for Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments (Medicaid DSH) for OB/neonatal intensive care services, trauma services, burn centers, academic medical centers, critical access hospitals, and selected other limited groups of providers.
Read the Pennsylvania Bulletin notice here .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-04-16T06:00:25+00:00April 16th, 2013|Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

IRS Issues Guidelines for Community Health Assessments

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a proposed rule governing how non-profit hospitals will conduct future community health assessments.
Such assessments are required of non-profit hospitals under the Affordable Care Act.
The new regulation also includes guidelines for hospital billing practices when serving low-income patients.
To learn more about the new regulation, find a copy of the regulation itself and an IRS fact sheet here , on the web site of the U.S. Treasury Department.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-04-12T06:00:21+00:00April 12th, 2013|Health care reform|Comments Off

PA Health Law Project Publishes March Newsletter

The Pennsylvania Health Law Project has published the March 2013 edition of Health Law PA News, its monthly newsletter.Features this month include articles about the governor’s proposed FY 2014, prospects for Medicaid expansion, coming Affordable Care Act changes, the final expansion of HealthChoices, and more.
Find a link to the complete newsletter here , on the web site of the Pennsylvania Health Law Project.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-04-11T06:00:48+00:00April 11th, 2013|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Proposed FY 2014 Pennsylvania state budget|Comments Off

PA Ranks Low in Public Health Spending, Study Finds

Pennsylvania ranks 43rd of the 50 states in public health spending, according to a new report issued by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the organization Trust for America’s Health.
While the median annual public health expenditure per capita nation-wide is $27, Pennsylvania spends only $14 per capita on public health.
Public health encompasses such functions as protecting the water and food supplies, inspecting restaurants, promoting good health, guarding against environmental hazards, and tracking the spread of infectious diseases.
Read more about the state’s role in public health and why Pennsylvania rates so poorly compared to other states in this Allentown Morning Call article .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-04-10T06:00:44+00:00April 10th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

PA May Consider Private Approach to Medicaid Expansion

Still rejecting expansion of the state’s Medicaid program as envisioned under the Affordable Care Act, Pennsylvania Tom Corbett has indicated that he may be interested in following the lead of a few other states in attempting to use federal Medicaid expansion money to purchase private health insurance for newly eligible Medicaid recipients.
This news comes in the aftermath of the governor’s Washington, D.C. visit with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius during which the two officials discussed the governor’s reluctance to incur the future cost increases that he believes the state will face under Medicaid expansion.
Recently, the governors of Arkansas, Ohio, and several other states have expressed interest in purchasing private insurance for new Medicaid recipients instead of expanding their states’ traditional Medicaid programs.
Read more about Governor Corbett’s meeting with Secretary Sebelius and the possibility that the state’s closed door to the question of Medicaid expansion is now slightly ajar in this Philadelphia Inquirer article.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-04-09T06:00:07+00:00April 9th, 2013|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

CHIP Enrollment Down in PA

Participation in Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has fallen by nearly 100,000 children since mid-2011.
Much of the decline is being attributed to a reduction in the state’s marketing of the program in recent years. Additional money for marketing is included in Governor Corbett’s proposed FY 2014 budget.
Read more about the extent of the fall in CHIP enrollment and why it has occurred in this Philadelphia Inquirer article .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-04-08T06:00:13+00:00April 8th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Medicare Penalties Hurt Safety-Net Hospitals More, Some Argue

Penalties imposed on hospitals deemed to have excessive readmissions of Medicare patients may disproportionately target safety-net hospitals, some health care experts maintain.
Such penalties are part of Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program.
According to the recent New York Times article “Hospitals Question Medicare Rules on Readmissions,” “…health policy experts and hospital executives say the penalties, which went into effect in October, unfairly target hospitals that treat the sickest patients or the patients facing the greatest socioeconomic challenges.” The article goes on to cite a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, noting that “Large academic medical centers and so-called safety-net hospitals are bearing the brunt of the new policy, and the authors warn that the penalties could make it even harder for hospitals struggling to care for those patients with the highest needs.”
Read the Times article here.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-04-05T06:00:29+00:00April 5th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

ER Overuse May be Overstated

The common perception that many hospital emergency rooms are significantly overused by people not suffering genuine medical emergencies may not be accurate according to a new report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
According to the study “Comparison of Presenting Complaint vs. Discharge Diagnosis for Identifying ‘Nonemergency’ Emergency Department Visits,” many ER patients who turn out not to be suffering genuine medical emergencies present with virtually the same symptoms as patients who are suffering true emergencies. This suggests that it may be unreasonable in at least some cases for patients to determine whether their medical problems genuinely require emergency assistancePennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals typically experience very high emergency room utilization.
Overuse of hospital emergency rooms is frequently cited as a major cause of rising health care costs.
Read more about these latest findings in this New York Times blog entry and find the JAMA study here.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-04-03T06:00:54+00:00April 3rd, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

SNAPShots

SNAPShots

About PA Safety Net Admin

Home / About Us / Advocacy / Why Join? / SNAPShots / Contact Us

Home / About Us / Advocacy / Why Join? / SNAPShots / Contact Us