The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) seeks public input on proposals intended to strengthen oversight of the nine-accrediting organization (AOs) that survey Medicare and Medicaid certified health care providers for compliance with health and safety requirements. CMS proposes to prohibit AOs from giving a hospital or other health care facility advance notice of a survey; penalize hospitals that receive a condition-level citation during a validation survey; and require AOs to use CMS’s Conditions of Participation as their minimum accreditation standards.

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has updated guidance to now allow hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals to text patient information and orders to the electronic health records (EHR) using a HIPAA-compliant secure platform. Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) continues to be the preferred method of order entry by a provider, but CMS recognizes there have been significant improvements in the encryption and interface capabilities of texting platforms to transfer data into EHRs since their last guidance was issued in 2018.

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In the FY 2024 Inpatient Hospital Final Rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized several changes to the information that eligible hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals report under the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program.  CMS does not expect that these changes will increase the burden of collecting this information; however, they are required to give the public a second opportunity for public comment. Interested persons are invited to send comments regarding the estimated burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected.

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Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched a new resource to get the word out about the agency’s efforts to reduce costs through Medicare drug price negotiation and other measures brought by the Inflation Reduction Act. The site explains a new $35 insulin cap and other savings, inflation rebates, health care cost savings by state, and other sharable details in fact sheets, social media messaging, and videos that explain the changes.

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In response to the surging number of syphilis and congenital syphilis cases nationwide, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is taking action to slow the spread with a focus on those most significantly impacted. Read the press release. As part of this effort, HHS is collaborating with CDC and the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention on a webinar for clinicians and other healthcare providers. Congenital syphilis occurs when pregnant people with syphilis pass the infection to their babies. Early screening, diagnosis, and treatment can prevent potential lifelong consequences. Speakers will explore missed opportunities for prevention. Registration page for the Wednesday, Feb. 28, 12:00 – 1:00 pm webinar.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response updated the Risk Identification and Site Criticality (RISC) Toolkit. The RISC Toolkit is an objective, data-driven all-hazards risk assessment that can be used by public and private organizations within the healthcare and public health sectors to inform emergency preparedness planning, risk management activities, and resource investment. Use it for emergency preparedness planning and more.

SAMHSA’s updated toolkit provides guidance to a wide range of individuals on preventing and responding to an overdose. It also emphasizes that harm reduction and access to treatment are essential aspects of overdose prevention.

Last year, healthcare company bankruptcies increased to their highest level in five years, Modern Healthcare reports, citing Gibbins Advisors analysis. The advisory firm’s report, which looked at Chapter 11 bankruptcy case filings from 2019 to 2023, found 79 healthcare companies with more than $10 million in liabilities that filed for bankruptcy protection last year. Pharmaceutical and senior care companies made up nearly half of the list. The second-highest year for bankruptcies was 2019, with 51 companies filing.

Over the past several months, oversight of the COVID-19 Uninsured Program (UIP) by both the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) has ramped up, according to Feldesman Leifer LLP (formerly Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell – FTLF). This increase in activity may be due to an OIG report issued in July of 2023 that stated, “[o]n the basis of our sample results, we estimated that nearly $784 million of $4.2 billion (or 19%) of UIP payments made to providers during our audit period for approximately 3.7 million of 19.2 million patients were improper.” In its response to the OIG audit report, HRSA states, among other things, that it will seek to recover improper payments to providers. In addition to the ongoing audits by the HHS OIG, the Division of Program Integrity of HRSA’s Provider Relief Bureau has recently begun random assessments of providers that received UIP funds using its team of contract audit firms. Central to the July OIG report are the terms and conditions that providers agreed to in order to bill the UIP fund for COVID testing and vaccine administration. In addition, the OIG has recently started audits of other providers including Health Centers focused on another, and rather unusual, provision of the terms and conditions. Health centers are urged to review the UIP terms and conditions, protocols for determining uninsured status as well as determine the amount of UIP payments received and how those funds were used and consider strategies to document, among other things, how your organization determined uninsured status and how it can document use of UIP funds. Read more.