Welcome to GreisGuide to LTACHs
This weblog is devoted to providing timely business and legal information about Long Term Acute Care Hospitals (LTACHs).
Each month this weblog (and the monthly eNewsletter) will provide the latest news on key regulatory issues facing LTACHs, developments in the purchase and sale of facilities, discussions about key operational challenges and successes, updates on recent litigation and government investigations, articles about pending Federal and state legislation and industry trends, and the movements of industry insiders.
Please contact me if you would like to report information about your organization or its leadership, if you have suggestions for topics, if you are interested in advertising on the weblog, or if you would like more information about anything you read on this weblog.
Jason S. Greis, Esq.
McGuireWoods LLP |
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Recent Publications
The January/February 2010 GreisGuide to LTACHs newsletter is now available online.The LTACH industry’s latest efforts to introduce legislation to extend MMSEA’s LTACH provisions can presently be found in two bills—H.R. 4213 § 221, and H.R. 3590 § 3106. H.R. 4213 is the Tax Extenders Act of 2009, which is a bill introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on March 1, 2010 as a substitute amendment to a tax extenders bill passed by the House in December 2009. H.R. 3590 is The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is the Senate's health care reform bill, which passed on December 24, 2009 by a party-line vote of 60-39.Congratulations to Jim Prister, a NALTH Board member and President and CEO of RML Specialty Hospital, who was chosen to be the 2010 chair of the American Hospital Association's Section for Long-Term Care and Rehabilitation. As chair, Jim will lead the section's governing council which advises the AHA on public policy issues of concern to all post-acute and continuing care providers.On March 1, 2010, MedPAC released its 2010 Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy. The purpose of the Final Report is to recommend annual Medicare payment updates for the following nine Medicare fee-for-service payment systems: hospitals, physicians, ambulatory surgery centers, outpatient dialysis services, hospices, skilled nursing facilities, home health services, inpatient rehabilitation facility services and long-term acute care hospital services. Having reached the one year anniversary of the HITECH Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, many changes to the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules are now effective. Unfortunately, since the Department of Health and Human Services has not yet issued guidance with respect to most of these changes, Covered Entities and Business Associates must begin good faith compliance based solely on the language of the HITECH Act. Antimicrobial stewardship is very important globally as pathogens continue to become more resistant to existing antibiotic therapy while, simultaneously, new antibiotic development has become increasingly scarce. Establishing an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program in the long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) arena is essential. Patients who are admitted to these hospitals often have serious and partially treated infections. Without the constant monitoring of antibiotic use, collateral damage in the form of increased resistance and lack of effectiveness to popular antibiotics may occur. The Joint Commission recently released interim staffing effectiveness standards applicable to its hospital and long term care certification programs that will become effective July 1, 2010. The Interim Standards will replace currently-suspended staffing effectiveness standards PI.04.01.01 (hospitals) and HR.1.30 (long term care facilities) while more extensive research is performed to improve staffing effectiveness requirements.The November-December 2009 issue of the GreisGuide to LTACHs newsletter has been posted to the weblog. Happy HolidaysOn Friday, December 11, 2009, MedPAC released its draft recommendation to HHS to forego any market basket update to payment rates for LTACHs for the 2011 rate year. MedPAC found that profit margins on Medicare cases averaged 3.4% during RY 2008 and projected that Medicare margins will increase, on average, to 5.8% in RY 2010.On December 8, 2009 Rockland County Executive, C. Scott Vanderhoef ,and Hospitals Commissioner, Richard Maloney, announced the official opening of Summit Park Hospital’s new Acute Renal Dialysis Unit. Summit Park Hospital is a 100-bed acute care hospital with 57 physical medicine/rehabilitation beds and 43 inpatient psychiatric beds and is one of four LTACHs in New York State.
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