Regional Digest
Regional Digest
• Penn State Geisinger Health System’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center (Hershey, PA) is cutting 62 jobs, and possibly 100 more, to offset growing costs due to a reduction in Medicare reimbursements. Some employees speculated that the merger between the two is causing the trouble, but hospital officials say the cuts would have been worse without the merger, reported the Harrisburg Patriot. They say the cuts are due to adverse effects from the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. The act reduces Medicare revenue at Pennsylvania hospitals by $4 billion through 2002, said Nancy Heffernan, vice president for healthcare, finance, and insurance for the Hospital & Health System Association of Pennsylvania. Inpatient revenue will fall by $1.6 billion, and home health and outpatient revenue will fall by $1.2 billion, reported the Patriot.
• Hundreds of representatives from the Home Options Mission for the Elderly (HOME) Coalition were in New Orleans last month to make its presence known during this year’s legislative session, reported the New Orleans Times-Picayune. HOME’s legislative agenda included support for a bill sponsored by Louisiana Rep. Melinda Schwegmann to create an interagency task force on long term care and to give seniors more alternatives to institutional care. The House Health and Welfare Committee has chosen to turn the bill into a request for a study that would bring all the parties to the table with the committee in the next two years and perhaps lead to the development of even stronger legislation.
• More than 3,000 seniors from Wisconsin rallied at the state Capitol last week to show their support for reforms that could make home care as available as nursing home care, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The rally was planned by the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups and was held just days before the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee is expected to consider a sweeping reform known as Family Care, which would be launched by $11.2 million worth of pilot programs. The seniors supporting the legislation say they want no more waiting lists for home care, the Sentinel reported.
• The Panhandle Health District in Idaho has hired Kay Kindig as its new director. Kindig has served as head of the district’s home health division for a dozen years. She was a candidate for the job 18 months ago when the panhandle Health District Board was choosing a new director, but she chose to stay with the home health division, which was experiencing financial difficulty. Kindig replaces David Reese, who resigned in February.
• Lawmakers passed a $41 million state budget in Illinois that gives home health agencies, and other community organizations, a 1.6% rate increase. The increase is about half of what the organizations had sought.
• Believing the Visiting Nurses of Aroostook (VNA; Bangor, ME) misled them, the Madawaska Board of Selectmen has rescinded its offer of a $20,000 grant to help the agency offset losses due to changes in Medicare funding. When the board approved the grant, VNA’s executive director told them that VNA was the only Medicare-approved agency in the county to provide acute care. When Valley Home Health, another home care agency in Madawaska, requested a $20,000 grant, the selectmen knew they had made a mistake. "We knew there would be a line at the door wanting money," said Vernon Doucette, board chairman. "It’s not that we don’t want to help, but there are some places we can’t go."
• The University of Colorado Health Services Center (Denver) selected 56 agencies to conduct a national study of Medicare patients with congestive heart failure and diabetes. Among those agencies is Delta Home Health Agency (Belzoni, MS), which is under investigation for alleged Medicare abuse, reported the Baton Rouge Advocate. The study will compare costs of treatments, length of home health visits, and other aspects of care across different regions. The Delta investigation had nothing to do with the company’s selection to be part of the study. The company was randomly selected as one of seven home health agencies chosen from each state. The Department of Health and Human Services will give Delta about $1,000 through June 2000 for its participation in the study.
• The Bangor, ME, police department offers a service to help Alzheimer’s disease patients who may become lost. The department will register anyone in Bangor who submits a notarized registration form with a photograph into the Penobscot County law enforcement database. If a person is found, his or her identity can be located through the photograph, reported the Bangor Daily News.
• A Miami jury found Ernesto Montaner innocent of Medicare fraud at his home health company, Mederi (Coral Gables, FL). Last year, investigators claimed they had found no legitimate billings among $15 million in Mederi claims, reported the Associated Press. The jury did convict a physical therapist who shared ownership in the company. State Sen. Alberto Gutman and his wife, Marci, hidden owners of Mederi, pleaded innocent last week that they pocketed $2 million from false claims
• The Rhode Island chapter of the National Association of Social Workers wants to charter a jetliner to Washington and fill it with leading experts on healthcare. The group plans to demand increases in spending for the state’s health programs.
• Memorial Hospital’s Home Care (Sheridan, WY) will help patients prepare for possibilities of equipment or power failure associated with Y2K problems. Patients who might be affected by the problems are those on ventilators, oxygen, or any equipment powered by electricity. Another concern is whether medical supply distributors will be affected.
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