January 17, 2005
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MHA's Monday Executive Briefing
January 17, 2005
In this week's edition...
State News
1. State of the State Address - Governor Haley Barbour
2. ATRA honors Ross for tort reform role
3. Bill adds four chancery judges; eliminates 'herd' elections
4. Two House panels OK cigarette tax
5. Legislators told tobacco trust off limits as ready cash
National News
6. Judges dismiss lawsuits in Cleveland, Atlanta
7. MedPAC urges new DRGs for specialty hospitals
8. Bush's Budget Expected to Be Aggressive
9. Trends: Health Spending Growth Slows In 2003
10. Lessons from the Reign of Alexander the Great
11. Time off from work gains in importance
State News
1. State of the State Address - Governor Haley Barbour
- Text
- Video
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2. ATRA honors Ross for tort reform role
State Sen. Charlie Ross of Brandon has been honored by the American Tort Reform Association for his leadership and expertise in the effort to pass House Bill 13. For the full story from the Webster Progress-Times, click here.
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3. Bill adds four chancery judges; eliminates 'herd' elections
A bill passed Jan. 13 in the Senate would make it more difficult for blacks to get elected to judgeships, a lawmaker says. The bill would create four new chancery judgeships in districts with heavy caseloads and eliminate the process known as "running with the herd," which requires candidates to run against each other for open district judge positions as opposed to holding separate elections for each post. For the full story from The Sun Herald, click here.
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4. Two House panels OK cigarette tax
Two Mississippi House committees on Jan. 13 swiftly approved a $1-per-pack hike on cigarettes to fund Medicaid's growing deficit and prescription drug benefits for 50,000 poor and disabled in the state. For the full story from The Clarion Ledger, click here.
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5. Legislators told tobacco trust off limits as ready cash
State Treasurer Tate Reeves warned legislators Jan. 13 to stay away from Mississippi's tobacco settlement funds when looking for extra money. For the full story from The Clarion Ledger, click here. For the Sun Herald's story, click here.
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National News
6. Judges dismiss lawsuits in Cleveland, Atlanta
Judge Solomon Oliver of the U.S. District Court for northeast Ohio on Jan. 13 dismissed a lawsuit against Catholic Healthcare Partners and the AHA, a case for which arguments were held recently. The judge dismissed all of the federal claims, and declined to exercise jurisdiction over the state claims, dismissing them as well.
"Permitting this claim to continue would require the court to make numerous jumps in logic that run counter to legal authority," Judge Oliver said in referring specifically to the breach of contract claim in the suit, a cornerstone of the plaintiffs' case. He also notes, referring to dismissals in other cases, that no court has found "for the plaintiffs on any substantive legal issue. Although the court analyzes this specific case on its own merits, the court does find the legal analysis from the other dismissals persuasive."
Among those other dismissals the judge cited are these two recent ones, both voluntary dismissals by the plaintiffs: Washington Regional Medical Center in Arkansas, and Provena Health in Illinois.
In the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, the judge today dismissed the federal charges against the Central Georgia Health Services and Medical Center of Central Georgia of Macon. The state claims were dismissed without prejudice which would allow the plaintiff to refile the charges in state court. The AHA was not a defendant in this case.
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7. MedPAC urges new DRGs for specialty hospitals
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission voted to recommend that Medicare revise DRGs to differentiate the severity of patient cases at cardiac, orthopedic and other single-specialty hospitals from patients at general acute-care hospitals. The advisory group, in the first of two days of hearings, said it would not address a staff proposal to eliminate the "whole hospital" exemption in self-referral law but would vote at the end of the day on whether to extend a federal moratorium on new physician investment in specialty hospitals. MedPAC approved recommending that hospitals be allowed to share savings from cost-reduction efforts with physicians but said there must be safeguards to protect quality and avoid encouraging inappropriate referrals. The group did not discuss possible safeguards.
MedPAC said there was not enough data on quality and efficiency at physician-owned hospitals to consider eliminating the whole-hospital exemption, which allows doctors to make referrals to facilities in which they hold financial interests. Some commissioners said the specialty hospital moratorium, scheduled to end in June, should be extended for longer than the proposed one year. They suggested tying the length of an extension to progress on DRG changes.
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8. Bush's Budget Expected to Be Aggressive
The Bush administration is preparing a budget request that would freeze most spending on agriculture, veterans and science, slash or eliminate dozens of federal programs, and force more costs, from Medicaid to housing, onto state and local governments, according to congressional aides and lawmakers. For the full story from The Washington Post, click here.
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9. Trends: Health Spending Growth Slows In 2003
The pace of health spending growth slowed in 2003 for the first time in seven years, driven in part by a slowdown in public spending growth. U.S. health care spending rose 7.7 percent in 2003, much slower than the 9.3 percent growth in 2002. Financial constraints on the Medicaid program and the expiration of supplemental funding provisions for Medicare services drove the deceleration. U.S. health spending accounted for 15.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product in 2003, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from 2002. For the full story from HealthAffairs, click here.
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10. Lessons from the Reign of Alexander the Great
The king's story bears warnings for health care leaders who fail to consolidate their holdings or groom successors. For the full story from Hospitals & Health Networks, click here.
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11. Time off from work gains in importance
American workers are saying they need a break. As their number of hours clocked on the job has crept higher, more time off has become a bigger priority. In the past few years, human resources experts say time off has consistently placed among the top three employee concerns (along with compensation and staffing levels), whereas it used to be farther down the list. In a Salary.com poll taken online in November 2004, 39% of workers said if given the choice, they would choose time off over the equivalent in additional base salary. Of course, most of the 4,600 respondents are still opting for the bigger paycheck, but the desire for time off is up almost 20% from just three years ago when Salary.com conducted a similar poll. For the full story, click here.
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