March 26, 2009 (Excerpt from the HFMA News) – Stand for Quality, a coalition of 165 organizations that includes the American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals, announced six recommendations to improve health care quality, access and affordability, which the group says are “inextricably linked.” Stand for Quality is calling for the public and private sectors to partner in measuring quality and to use the results to drive continuous improvements. “Our recommendations build on the successes of work already underway to create an integrated national infrastructure that will put into the hands of providers of care, purchasers of care and consumers of care information to inform their decisions,” says Richard Umbdenstock, president and chief executive officer of the American Hospital Association.

The six recommendations are to set national priorities:

1. provide coordination for quality improvement;
2. endorse and maintain nationally standardized measures;
3. develop measures to fill gaps in priority areas;
4. ensure that providers and other stakeholders have a role in developing policies on use of measures;
5. collect, analyze, and make performance information available and actionable;
6. and support a sustainable infrastructure for quality improvement.

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March 23, 2009 – (Excerpt from HFMA News)
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced that states can access an additional $268 million authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help pay hospitals to treat their most vulnerable patients.

Disproportionate share hospitals (DSHs)–those that serve a disproportionate share of low-income or uninsured individuals–are eligible. States receive an annual allotment to make payments to DSHs to account for higher costs associated with treating uninsured and low-income patients. The Recovery Act increases the amount of allotments available to states from approximately $11.06 billion to $11.33 billion for 2009.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will notify states about the availability of the increased portion of allotments for hospitals. Because not all states spend their full DSH allotments, states must demonstrate they have used all of their existing fiscal year 2009 DSH allotments before this new funding can be accessed. States must request the additional funds from CMS as part of their quarterly Medicaid budget request and the funds will be distributed as separate Recovery Act DSH grants.

See a complete list of the revised DSH allotments.