Invitation to Participate in ‘Patients’ Right to Know” Act Stakeholder Process (re: HB23-1218)

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE)

You are invited to participate in the stakeholder process regarding the “Patients’ Right to Know” Act, or HB23-1218, a law passed by the Colorado Legislature in the 2023 session. This new law requires hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, freestanding emergency departments, and licensed community clinics to make publicly available a list of the health care services which are generally available or subject to significant restriction specifically relating to health care in three areas:

• Reproductive health-care services;
• LGBTQ health-care services; and
• End-of-life health-care services.

In response to the new law the Division will develop, in collaboration with stakeholders, a “Service Availability Form.” Once the form itself is developed, the Division will work to establish rules which bring the law into the pertinent health facility licensing chapters. Once the form is finalized and published, the affected health facilities will be required to provide this form to patients, members of the public, and the Department for public display. For more information, please see the whitepaper here. 

Our first monthly meeting will be Tuesday, September 26th, 2023, from 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm, and on the fourth Tuesday of the month thereafter until the process concludes in spring 2024.

Notice will be emailed directly to all individuals who sign up to receive such messages. Please sign up here. Please feel free to share this link with other interested parties.

All who are interested are welcome to attend and participate. Meeting documents, including agendas, proposed rule language, presentations, etc., will be posted to the public meeting drive no later than a week before each meeting. 

You are receiving this email because you signed up to the interested parties list for this project. If you wish to no longer receive these emails, please reply to this email with that request.

If you have any questions or comments prior to the meeting, feel free to contact myself, Ash Jackson at [email protected], or Alexandra Haas, at [email protected].

Best Regards,

Ash Jackson, Policy Advisor
Policy & Regulation Services
CDPHE

Who Should Get a COVID Vaccine This Year?

Reuters | By Michael Erman

(Reuters) - The U.S. drug regulator authorized updated COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech as well as from Moderna on Monday as the country prepares to start an autumn vaccination campaign as soon as this week. A third vaccine from Novavax remains under review.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the shots for those aged 12 and above, and authorized them for emergency use in children aged 6 months through 11 years. Advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are set to meet on Tuesday to discuss recommendations on who should get the vaccines this year. CDC Director Mandy Cohen said last month she expects the shots to be given annually, but not all doctors agree everyone needs them each year.

How is this year's vaccine different from last year?

Pfizer with BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax all have created new versions of their COVID-19 vaccines. Unlike last year's booster shot that included the original strain of the virus and the then-dominant Omicron variant, this year's shot targets only XBB.1.5, the predominant variant through most of 2023.

The companies have said their retooled vaccines have been shown in early testing to work against newer Omicron subvariants now circulating, including the highly mutated BA.2.86.

Should seniors, the immunocompromised and pregnant people get the shot this year?

There is broad consensus among doctors that these groups should receive at least an annual COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the virus because of their elevated risk of severe disease, hospitalization and death. For instance, the British government's vaccine committee said only adults 65 and older and some of these other categories will be offered the shot as they are the most likely to benefit…

Read Full Article

For Home Health Providers, Finding The Right Revenue Mix Is Increasingly A ‘Balancing Act’

Home Health Care News | By Andrew Donlan
 
Consolidation in the home health market has been forecasted for years.
 
While the amount of home health agencies has declined over the last couple of years, larger consolidation has yet to hit the industry.
 
But the fragmented and growing home health space could finally begin to experience it in the near-term future, likely due to declining traditional Medicare payment rates and a growing Medicare Advantage (MA) population.
 
Those factors are troublesome for almost all home health providers, but they also offer M&A opportunity.
 
“I think the the rate environment that we’re experiencing, whether it’s through Medicare or Medicare Advantage, is going to put some pressure on small players,” VitalCaring CEO April Anthony said on a panel at Home Health Care News’ FUTURE conference. “I think if you don’t have some of those Medicare Advantage relationships, at a point, that becomes a limiting factor to your ability to grow. I anticipate a fair amount of consolidation, in spite of the fact that this might not be the highest multiple era that we’ve experienced in our last few years.” …
 
The Balancing Act
 
When it comes to poor payment rates, Anthony chose to focus on MA plans’ rates for home health services, as opposed to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) fee-for-service payments.
 
“It’s frustrating to see where Medicare is going with their rates, and what they’re trying to do with clawbacks,” Anthony said. “But, if one of our managed care partners came to us with those [traditional Medicare] rates, we would be jumping for joy. We’d be saying, ‘This is the greatest contract we could possibly hope for.’”
 
Healing Hands Healthcare CEO Summer Napier – while recognizing that MA’s presence is growing quickly – warned other home health providers in the room about getting “into network” with an MA plan.

Being within a network can be beneficial for some providers from a referral perspective, but the risk-reward needs to be calculated on an individual basis.
 
“You can be so eager to get into network or go after a contract that it ends up worse for you than you were without it,” Napier said on the panel. “I think some of the smaller organizations here want to be like the bigger organizations. And so you go after a contract, and then you get into the network. And then, you’re making a third of what you were making being out of network.”…

Read Full Article

HHS Announces Stronger Protections for Those with Disabilities

Home Care Insider

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a proposed rule that would update, clarify, and strengthen the statute that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs and activities that receive Federal financial assistance or are conducted by a Federal agency.

The proposed rule provides greater protections for people with disabilities in federally funded health and human services programs and helps ensure that people with disabilities are not subjected to discrimination in any program or activity receiving funding from HHS simply because they have a disability.

Specifically, the proposed rule:

• Ensures that medical treatment decisions are not based on biases or stereotypes about individuals with disabilities, judgments that an individual will be a burden on others or beliefs that the life of an individual with a disability has less value than the life of a person without a disability;
• Clarifies obligations for web, mobile, and kiosk accessibility;
• Establishes enforceable standards for accessible medical equipment;
• Clarifies requirements in HHS-funded child welfare programs and activities;
• Prohibits the use of value assessment methods that place a lower value on life-extension for individuals with disabilities when that method is used to limit access or to deny aids, benefits, and services; and
• Clarifies obligations to provide services in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of individuals with disabilities.