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Sunday, 18 March 2012

Princess Health andNEW Learn to Run Group!.Princessiccia

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Health and Performance will be starting a new learn to run group APRIL 5th!  E-mail gillianwillard@gmail.com to register today. 

Prices go up to $60 April 1st, so register now!

Friday, 16 March 2012

Princess Health and Kentucky hospitals say they gave back $1.67 billion to their communities in 2010, mostly by absorbing losses and bad debts.Princessiccia

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By Tara Kaprowy
Kentucky Health News

With the downturn in the economy part of the reason, Kentucky's hospitals say they gave back a whopping $1.67 billion to their communities in 2010, mainly by providing care for which they were never paid.

That's 13 percent more than the hospitals reported last year, and just one of many figures in the latest annual report from the Kentucky Hospital Association, which runs a little over a year behind because it takes a long time to compile the data from more than 100 hospitals.

KHA's 2010 Community Benefits Report shows hospitals absorbed $435.5 million in bad debt in 2010, which accrued when patients came to the hospital and were treated but did not pay their bills.

Shortfalls in Medicare and Medicaid payments cost even more � $456.2 million � because the federal government reimburses Kentucky hospitals for about 85 percent of the cost of Medicaid patients and 95 percent for those on Medicare. That's big, because 71 percent of patient days in Kentucky are covered by one of these programs, said Pam Mullaney, KHA's director of membership services. Hospitals also gave $274 million to charity-care programs that are set up to include free or discounted care to people who are unable to pay. Those three categories of losses increased by more than $158 million over 2009. KHAcalls them community benefits because "you're not getting any type of margin," Mullaney said.

A 2009 Thomson Reuters study showed the average U.S hospital reported an operating profit margin of 3.7 percent. The average operating margin at Kentucky hospitals was 2.44 percent in 2009. Forty percent of hospitals lost revenue from patient services that year, Mullaney said. Still, reported community benefits increased by 13 percent, a total of $190 million.

This is the third year of the report, which was based on a voluntary survey to which 104 of 123 hospitals responded (Eight hospitals were not surveyed because they treat limited types of patients, such as veterans, children or psychiatric cases.) Mullaney said the number of hospitals turning in figures "has grown a little bit each year, but it�s not consequential."

Hospitals are asked to describe and put a value on the programs and activities they provide at or below cost that help their community. Though community benefits are "the greatest single affirmation of not-for-profit hospitals' tax-exempt status," Mullaney said data show Kentucky's 26 for-profit hospitals "do every bit as much as the not-for profits."

In the past two years, Pikeville Medical Center has absorbed $70 million in charitable care and bad debt. The Murray-Calloway County Hospital is in the ninth healthiest county in Kentucky, but has felt the crunch too. From 2010 to 2011, bad debt increased from $7 million to $7.8 million and charity care increased from $5.1 million to $6.2 million.

T.J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow has also seen bad debt increase and business decrease when the economy crashed and then stagnated. "Our elective procedure volumes have come down. Patients often wait until they're sicker before they come in," said Laura Belcher, director of planning, marketing and development. The hospital has responded by cutting costs, adopting the "lean philosophy" of eliminating waste and streamlining processes.

Interestingly, the hospital is also pushing for more preventive care since the economy went south. "People ask us, 'Aren't you putting yourself out of business?' But we really want people to be proactive about their health. We've done a lot more health fairs, more screenings," Belcher said.

Indeed, the report shows Kentucky hospitals spent $500 million in 2010 to actively help their communities, through such activities as health screenings, support groups, research, training of nurses and doctors, addiction recovery and neonatal intensive care, or simply donating money to community functions. Many of these programs "are provided at no cost or at a financial loss and would not be provided if the decision was based on monetary decisions," Mullaney said.

Realizing there was a need in the area for children with special needs, the Glasgow hospital set up C.A.M.P. T.J. Kids, a weeklong day camp in the summer for children with special needs. "These children often receive services through school and during school," Belcher said. "But we found many of the families could not afford or handle the transportation to get here during the summer. This is almost like a summer booster."

The camp falls under the umbrella of the Discovery Academy, funded by the hospital and money raised by volunteers. The academy also hosts an annual overnight camp for children with autism. While the children swim in the hotel pool or interact with each other, parents are "in a conference setting to learn about ways they can learn to be better parents" to kids with autism, Belcher said. "In the evening, while children are being supervised, the parents get to go for a quiet, romantic dinner."

When tornadoes struck Kentucky March 2, Pikeville Medical Center kicked into high gear and co-hosted a radio-a-thon that raised $200,000. "We allowed our employees to donate their vacation time, which we converted to actual dollars based on their rate of pay, and we offered employees the ability to do payroll deductions to contribute to the cause," said Cindy Johnson, director of public relations and the Medical Leader, the hospital's community newspaper.

The Murray hospital has increased its community outreach efforts and adopted a mission to provide the local school system with athletic trainers, whose salaries are paid entirely by the hospital, as well as school nurses, which are partly hospital funded. The goal is to promote health and wellness, said marketing director Melony Bray.

The KHA's Mullaney said the annual report reminds people what their hospital does. "A lot of times people think of their hospital as a place to go when they need emergency help," she said. "They don't think of the hospital as one of the big providers in the community for health fairs, health professional education, types of efforts in the community to help improvements like playgrounds and common spaces. Those are things that hospitals often get overlooked for but they do that because they are part of the community."

Kentucky Health News is a service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.
Princess Health and How to help your child lose weight? Lose weight yourself.Princessiccia

Princess Health and How to help your child lose weight? Lose weight yourself.Princessiccia

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If parents want to help their children lose weight, they should lose weight themselves, a new study shows.

"Parents are the most significant people in a child's environment, serving as the first and most important teachers," said Kerri N. Boutelle, associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of California-San Diego. "They play a signifiant role in any weight-loss program for children, and this study confirms the importance of their example in establishing healthy eating and exercise behaviors for their kids."

Researchers analyzed 80 adults who were parent to a 8- to 12-year child who was either overweight or obese for five months. Some adults participated in a parent-only treatment program, while others were in a program designed for themselves and their child.

The study looked at "the impact of three types of parenting skills taught in family-based behavioral treatment for childhood obesity, and the impact of each on the child's body weight: the parent modeling behaviors to promote their own weight loss, changes in home food environment, and parenting style and techniques (for example, a parent's ability to help limit the child's eating behavior, encouraging the child and participating in program activities)," reports research-reporting service Newswise. (Read more)

Princess Health and A summary of what to expect when the Supreme Court hears arguments about the health-care reform law.Princessiccia

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How big a deal will it be when the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments about the constitutionality of the new federal health-care reform law later this month? Big, concludes Stuart Taylor Jr. for Kaiser Health News.

"It's big enough for the justices to schedule six hours of arguments � more time than given to any case since 1966," he reports. "It's also big enough to attract more briefs than any other case in history ... and, finally, it's big enough to cause the justices to postpone until October half of the 12 cases that they were ordinarily going to hear in April in order to clear time to get started on the health care opinions."

The most pressing issues deal with the individual mandate of the law, which requires people without insurance to buy some or pay fines. The question is whether the mandate "represents an unconstitutional exercise on Congress' power to regulate commerce and to levy taxes," Taylor notes. There is also the question of state sovereignty, since the law requires states "to spend more of their own money or forfeit all of the federal Medicaid money they now receive," Taylor reports.

As for the outcome, that's the million-dollar question, Taylor writes. "It's clear that the court's four more liberal members, like almost all other liberal legal experts, will find the law constitutional in all respects. It's also clear that conservative Justice Clarence Thomas will vote to strike down much or all of the law. It's less clear what swing-voting Justice Anthony Kennedy and conservative Chief Justice John Roberts as well as Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito will do."

As for the major arguments regarding Medicaid and for and against the individual mandate, Taylor provides an excellent summary that is worth reading in its entirety. (Read more)
Princess Health and Ky. recognized for high immunization rate; up 17% since 2007.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Ky. recognized for high immunization rate; up 17% since 2007.Princessiccia

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For having childhood vaccination rates considerably higher than the national average, Kentucky's Department for Public Health was recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week.

Kentucky's childhood vaccination series coverage rate was about 80.6 percent in the last two quarters of 2010 and the first two quarters of 2011. Nationwide, the rate was 73.1 percent. Kentucky was also acknowledged for improving its childhood coverage from 63.3 percent in 2007. The data were collected from the annual National Immunization Survey.

Starting July 1, 2011, immunization requirements started being imposed for infants, toddlers and school-age children that were more in line with CDC recommendations and national pediatric standards.

"We have been working to increase immunization rates among Kentucky's children for several years now, including a campaign to make the public aware of the changes to the immunization schedule that took effect last July," said acting Health Commissioner Dr. Steve Davis. "The improvement in vaccine coverage helps improve the health and well-being of our fellow Kentuckians, and particularly our children." (Read more)

Princess Health and Switch to managed care happened too fast with too little knowledge, former Medicaid commissioner says.Princessiccia

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States like Kansas are looking at Kentucky as a precautionary tale for what not to do when transitioning to managed care, former Kentucky Medicaid commissioner Shannon Turner told Ryan Alessi on CN|2's "Pure Politics" Wednesday. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback "was heralding Kentucky . . . in the beginning," she said. "And last week, his office released what I call a 'Kansas is not Kentucky' statement."

Turner, who was fired from Passport Health Plan after she was linked to excessive travel expenses and is now a health-policy consultant, said Kentucky rushed into managed care too quickly � rather than a few months, the state really needed a year, she said. In Turner's view, there also isn't enough expertise in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to deal with the three new managed-care operators. "I think the managed-care companies really don't have the resources that they need at the state level to give them direction," she said. "On the state side, you have people looking at managed-care processes that they really aren't familiar with."

In other states that switched to managed care, Turner said there was a turnover in state staffing. In Kentucky, "There haven't been cuts, there haven't been layoffs . . . so what are the people who are there at Medicaid focused on, and is there adequate training?"

On Nov. 1, 560,000 Medicaid recipients were switched to managed care, which is "essentially outsourcing" to the managed-care operators, Turner said. Lawmakers have heard complaints about delayed payments and rigid pre-authorization requirements, including one instance Alessi mentioned, involving a woman in labor who was required to get pre-authorization before she could deliver her baby.

Turner said the MCOs are "excluded from the majority of the rules that apply to HMOs," including one that would prevent them from "sitting on" payments." Turner called the process a "bloodbath" for independent pharmacists because of those delayed payments, as well as community mental health centers, who were "seeking pre-authorization . . . but the managed care companies said, 'You can't send it to us electronically.' They were literally snail-mailing these things." (Read more)

Thursday, 15 March 2012

Princess Health and Beshear names Audrey Haynes secretary of embattled Cabinet for Health and Family Services.Princessiccia

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Audrey Tayse Haynes, who is a social worker by training but knows her way around politics, government and the nonprofit world, will be the new secretary of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services. She will replace Janie Miller, who resigned last month after controversies over Medicaid managed care and release of child-abuse records.

"Audrey brings a dynamic mix of large-scale organization management, policy development, and government experience to this position," said Gov. Steve Beshear, who made the appointment. "This cabinet is a complex organization, with a broad range of programs that serve tens of thousands of our most vulnerable Kentuckians. Audrey has the right skills and resources to make sure our citizens continue to get the care and services they need."

Haynes, who starts her new job April 16, has spent the last 10 years as senior vice president and chief government affairs officer for the YMCA of the USA in Washington, D.C. During the latter part of the Clinton administration, she was chief of staff to Tipper Gore and an assistant to Vice President Al Gore. She first went to Washington on an appointment from Gov. Paul Patton as head of the state's policy office in the nation's capital.

Earlier, she was director of human resource development in the Department of Mental Health in the former Cabinet for Human Resources, and ran a literacy program with First Lady Martha Wilkinson in the administration of Gov. Wallace Wilkinson. She has bachelor's and master's degrees in social work, respectively, from Spalding University in Louisville and the University of Kentucky.

"From my experience working with Audrey Haynes, I know her to be a consummate professional," former state auditor Crit Luallen, who worked with Haynes during the Patton administration, said in the Beshear administration's press release. "She will bring strong management skills, as well as national leadership experience to this critical cabinet post."

Haynes said in the release, "I am excited to be back in Kentucky full time. CHFS impacts every single Kentuckian � whether through birth certificates, health departments, restaurant inspections or services to the elderly. I feel that I am returning to my roots of social work and mental health services."

One of her first areas of focus will likely be monitoring the new Medicaid system, which brought managed care to 560,000 recipients in November. During the current legislative session, lawmakers have heard complaints about the transition, including the manner in which those with mental illnesses are being treated. "Now that Secretary Haynes is in place, we can continue to make progress on major initiatives such as managed care and ensure that our citizens get the services they deserve," said Rep. Jimmie Lee, D-Elizabethtown, chairman of the subcommittee that writes the cabinet's budget. (Read more)
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