Month: August 2023

Updates to Requirements for Buprenorphine Prescribing

August 10, 2023

Updates to Requirements for Buprenorphine Prescribing

As announced by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in January 2023, clinicians no longer need a federal waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder. Clinicians will still be required to register with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to prescribe controlled medications.

Beginning on June 27, the DEA registration will require applicants – both new and renewing – to affirm they have completed a new, one-time, eight-hour training. Exceptions for the new training requirement are practitioners who are board certified in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry, and those who graduated from a medical, dental, physician assistant, or advanced practice nursing school in the U.S. within five years of June 27, 2023.

Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) still have the opportunity to apply for a $3,000 payment on behalf of each provider who trained between January 1, 2019 and December 29, 2022 (when Congress eliminated the waiver requirement). Approximately $889,000 in program funding remains available for RHCs and will be paid on a first-come, first-served basis until funds are exhausted.

New Training Requirements for All DEA-Registered Providers

Send questions to: DATA2000WaiverPayments@hrsa.gov

Partnership for Quality Management (PQM) Seeks Rural Health Experts for Committees

August 10, 2023

Partnership for Quality Management (PQM) Seeks Rural Health Experts for Committees

New committees are being formed by Battelle, as contracted by CMS, to make recommendations on health care quality measurement. Rural health experts are sought for all PQM committees.

It takes diverse voices to drive PQM’s mission. PQM uses a consensus based process involving a variety of experts – clinicians, patients, measure experts, and health information technology specialists – to ensure informed and thoughtful endorsement reviews of quality performance measures.

Interested in learning more about joining a committee? Click Here

Committee Nominations:

Battelle staff conduct a review of committee member appointments annually, which includes internal re-calibration of membership, a call for nominations, and targeted outreach.

Any interested party may nominate themselves or another individual to a committee of interest once the nominations period is open.

Click Here to nominate yourself or another person

Upcoming Webinar – The Star Struck Factor in Survey Mastery

August 9, 2023

Upcoming Webinar – The Star Struck Factor in Survey Mastery

The next webinar in the Engage series, The Star Struck Factor in Survey Mastery, with expert Brian Lee, is scheduled for September 8 at 9:30 a.m. CT.

Who Should Attend:

  • C-Suite
  • Executives
  • Leaders at every level
  • Board members
  • Quality
  • Physicians & ACPs
  • Everyone committed to improving the patient experience

You will learn how to:

  • Understand the purpose and goals of the CMS HCAHPS Inpatient Survey
  • Gain insights into the credibility of all CMS CAHPS Surveys
  • Become knowledgeable about the evolution and purpose of public social media “reputation management” rating sites and how they work
  • Interpret the impact of social media websites that empower consumers with rating transparency
  • Learn the fundamentals of reading and interpreting the patient experience survey data
  • Empower your leaders and caregivers to interpret and use patient experience survey reports for continuous improvement
  • Master the five questions leaders need to know and answer about their ongoing patient experience scores
  • Grow market share about star ratings and their market impact
  • Gain important insights about the significant financial impact of survey ratings on market growth and decline

2 Powerful Action Take-Away Tools:

  • The Patient Experience Reporting Protocol Guide
  • Seven Steps to Improve Patient Experience Response Rates

When: Friday, September 8, 9:30 a.m. CT

Cost: No charge

Register Now

 

Upcoming Webinar – The Future is Virtual Care – but how do we get there, sustainably?

August 9, 2023

Upcoming Webinar – The Future is Virtual Care – but how do we get there, sustainably?

By now it’s obvious that virtual care is here to stay. The key questions though is: how can health centers, health systems, hospitals and behavioral health agencies make virtual care an integral part of their care delivery? How can we achieve financial sustainability, clinical sustainability, and strategic sustainability? What approaches can we take to increase clinician buy-in and commitment by leadership?

Based on 15+ years of experience implementing virtual care services, Christian Milaster will share a set of pragmatic approaches, mindset models, and tactics to enable those who care about virtual care to make it stay. Sustainably.

The presentation will present approaches and tactics

  • to create clinician buy-in and leadership commitment
  • to build the business, financial, and clinical case for virtual care
  • to increase your organization’s virtual care maturity
  • for telehealth optimization: workflows, technology and policy
  • to create a virtual care and digital health strategy
  • to manage virtual care performance

When: August 15, 2023, 2:00 p.m. CT

Register Here

Telehealth Resources

August 9, 2023

Telehealth Resources

Telehealth.HHS.gov provides trusted telehealth resources that cover a wide range of topics including workflow and staff training, reimbursement, and behavioral health. Easily access various topics and areas of interest for providers and patients.

Telehealth topics:

  • Behavioral Health
  • Chronic conditions
  • Health equity
  • Internet Access
  • Maternal health and pediatrics
  • Reimbursement and policy
  • Training
  • General

Learn more about telehealth resources

Register for the National Telehealth Conference

August 9, 2023

Register for the National Telehealth Conference

Join Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on September 12 for the National Telehealth Conference! Hear from experts about the future of telehealth and how to best use telehealth for your practice.

HRSA will host this virtual conference that brings public and private sector leaders together to discuss telehealth best practices. The conference will examine the importance of integrating telehealth into standard care.

Conference topics include:

  • The adoption of telehealth and expansion of broadband connectivity to improve health equity
  • Using tele-behavioral health as a successful model for integrating telehealth into the standard of care
  • Telehealth’s role in supporting the health care workforce and expanding services for patients
  • Implications of health policy to inform telehealth’s future in an evolving health care environment

Questions? Send email to: chsdteam@gsu.edu

Register Here

Become a Certified Rural Health Clinic Professional

August 8, 2023

Become a Certified Rural Health Clinic Professional

The National Association of Rural Health Clinics (NARHC) is offering Directors, Clinic Administrators & other RHC leaders a unique full-spectrum course designed to teach you how to operate a successful Rural Health Clinic. Upon course completion & attainment of an 80% or higher exam score, you will earn a Certified Rural Health Clinic Professional (CRHCP) designation.

Enrollment:

This course is offered twice a calendar year. Enrollment begins approximately 10 weeks prior to the date of the Final Exam taking place online.

View upcoming dates Here

Format:

This is a self-paced online course with a proctored online Final Exam

Time Commitment:

Most people complete the course in 4 – 6 weeks

Course Curriculum:

4 modules:

  • Admin & Finance
  • Billing & Coding
  • Regulatory Compliance & Quality
  • Federal Updates

Learn More

New Rural Health Safety Net Survey – 340B Program

August 4, 2023

New Rural Health Safety Net Survey – 340B Program

The National Rural Health Association (NRHA) and The Chartis Center for Rural Health are partnering on a new rural health safety net survey on the 340B drug program. Your input will help NRHA and Chartis better understand utilization and impact of the program as well as inform future research. If you would like to take the survey and share your perspective, please click the link below. The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete and will be open until August 18.

Take the Survey

 

Upcoming Webinar – NHSN Antibiotic Utilization Option: Using Data for Action in Critical Access Hospitals

August 4, 2023

Upcoming Webinar – NHSN Antibiotic Utilization Option: Using Data for Action in Critical Access Hospitals

This webinar is co-hosted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. Speakers will describe requirements for meeting the Antimicrobial Use and Resistance (AUR) Measure within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Promoting Interoperability Program and using the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Antimicrobial Use (AU) data for action in critical access hospitals.

Objectives

  • Describe requirements for meeting the NHSN AUR Measure within the CMS Promoting Interoperability Program
  • Illustrate using NHSN AU Option data to inform and implement antibiotic stewardship activities
  • Identify tracking and reporting resources to enhance your antibiotic stewardship program

Continuation education for pharmacists, nurses and physicians is pending.

When: Tuesday, November 14, 2023, 3:00 p.m. ET

Register Here

Reminder! MBQIP Data Reporting Reminders – August 2023

August 4, 2023

Reminder! MBQIP Data Reporting Reminders – August 2023

Important Notice

Dates for measure submission and manual/CART versions are based on currently available information and may be subject to change.

August 15, 2023

CMS Inpatient Measures**:

  • Patients seen Q1 2023 (January, February, March)
  • CMS Hospital Inpatient Reporting Specifications Manual version 13
  • Submitted to HQR via CART or by vendor
  • CART version – 30.1

October 31 2023

Emergency Department Transfer Communication (EDTC)

  • Patients seen Q3 2023 (July, August, September)
  • Submission process directed by state Flex Program

November 1, 2023

CMS Population and Sampling (optional)*

  • Patients seen Q2 2023 (April, May, June)
  • Inpatient** and outpatient
  • Entered via the Hospital Quality Reporting (HQR) HARP account

November 1, 2023

CMS Outpatient Measures:

  • Patients seen Q2 2023 (April, May, June)
  • CMS Hospital Outpatient Reporting Specifications Manual version 0a
  • Submitted to HQR via CART or by vendor.
  • CART version – 22.0

*Population and sampling refers to the recording of the number of cases meeting the measure requirements and the number of cases the hospital is submitting to the CMS warehouse.

** Currently there are no inpatient chart abstracted core MBQIP measures required.