Healthcare Financial News

In an effort to proactively address the ongoing pandemic, President Obama on Sunday signed a National Emergency Declaration on H1N1 influenza that allows healthcare systems to quickly implement disaster plans should they become overwhelmed.
 
As experts expected, H1N1 flu is moving rapidly throughout the country and the majority of states now have widespread influenza activity. This declaration gives authority for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to waive certain regulatory requirements for healthcare facilities in response to the ongoing pandemic. Specifically, healthcare facilities will be able to submit waivers to establish alternate care sites, and modified patient triage protocols, patient transfer procedures, and other actions that occur when they fully implement disaster operations plans.

Waivers still require that specific requests be submitted to HHS and processed, and some state laws may need to be addressed as well. Requirements that may be waived include those related to Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Philanthropic giving for health care in the United States grew by just 2.9 percent—or about $241 million—to $8.6 billion in 2008, according to a report issued by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP). Grateful patients, businesses, foundations, and other donors made $8.588 billion in charitable contributions to healthcare facilities and organizations in 2008, the AHP’s Report on Giving determined. 

This 2.9 percent increase was about half the growth rate achieved in 2007, when donations totaled $8.347 billion.

Accounting for much of the slight advance in giving was the fact that most not-for-profit hospitals and healthcare systems closed their books before the last quarter of 2008, when U.S. gross domestic product plunged more than 5 percent. Institutions that closed their books on Dec. 31, 2008, actually saw a 0.2 percent dip in annual giving.

More than eight of every 10 donations came from individuals, whose contributions comprised 60 percent of all philanthropic funds raised by not-for-profit healthcare institutions last year. One in 10 donations were made by businesses, including business-sponsored foundations, representing 17.5 percent of all funds raised, down slightly from 2007. Noncorporate foundations accounted for less than 3 percent of donors but almost 14 percent of revenues.  Other giving sources, including hospital auxiliaries, public agencies, and civic groups, accounted for 8.6 percent of total funds raised in 2008, compared to 7.5 percent in 2007.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded $17 million to fund projects to fight healthcare-associated infections, or HAIs.

Of the $17 million, $8 million will fund a national expansion of the Keystone Project, which within 18 months successfully reduced the rate of central-line blood stream infections in more than 100 Michigan intensive care units and saved 1,500 lives and $200 million. Last year, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded an expansion of this project to 10 states. With additional funding from AHRQ and a private foundation, the Keystone Project is now operating in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. The new funding will expand the effort to more hospitals, extend it to other settings in addition to ICUs, and broaden the focus to address other types of infections.

AHRQ, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also identified several high-priority areas to apply the remaining $9 million toward reducing MRSA and other types of HAIs.

HAIs are one of the most common complications of hospital care. Nearly 2 million patients develop HAIs, which contribute to 99,000 deaths each year and $28 billion to $33 billion in healthcare costs. HAIs are caused by different types of bacteria that infect patients being treated in a hospital or healthcare setting for other conditions. The most common HAI-causing bacteria is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. The number of MRSA-associated hospital stays has more than tripled since 2000, reaching 368,600 in 2005, according to AHRQ's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.

Read the HHS press release.

The number of rating downgrades declined notably for the first time in the third quarter of 2009 following three consecutive quarters of unprecedented heavy rating downgrade activity, according to an analysis released by Moody’s Investors Service. The ratio of downgrades to upgrades (1.5 to 1) was also more balanced in Q3, a sharp change from the 19 to five (3.8 to 1 margin) and 17 to four (4.3 to 1 margin) ratios in the first and second quarters of 2009, respectively. However, year-to-date activity reported in Moody’s Not-For-Profit Healthcare Quarterly Review: Third Quarter 2009 still shows downgrades far outpacing upgrades with 45 rating downgrades and 15 upgrades (3.0 to 1 margin).

Citing adverse impacts of anticipated cuts in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, Moody’s is maintaining its negative outlook on the not-for-profit healthcare industry until federal healthcare reform is finalized, despite the apparent easing of downgrade pressure. Other potential reform-related changes would have “uncertain outcomes for the industry, but there would be winners and losers,” the rating agency said. Moody’s will continue to monitor the progress of these changes, including a tax on more costly health insurance plans, bundled payments, the advent of a public option or not-for-profit health cooperative, and quality/payment links. Moody’s also stated that any effort to significantly reduce the uninsured population would decrease hospital bad debt and charity care, thereby bolstering profits.