Treasury Department Publishes Proposed Rules on Community Health Needs Assessments for Charitable Hospitals

The Affordable Care Act requires charitable hospitals to take an active role in improving the health of the communities they serve. The Department of the Treasury has taken the next step in refining new policies already in place that hold charitable hospitals to a higher standard when it comes to addressing the health needs in their communities. The proposed rules add details on how hospitals should conduct community health needs assessments and define how the IRS will enforce any violations of the new standards.

The ACA requires charitable (tax-exempt) hospitals to:

• Limit charges. The hospital may not charge individuals eligible for financial assistance more for emergency or other medically necessary care than the amounts generally billed to patients with Medicare or private commercial insurance.

• Establish and Disclose Financial Assistance Policies. Each hospital must establish and widely disclose a financial assistance policy that clearly describes the eligibility criteria for financial assistance and the method for applying for financial assistance. 

• Abide by reasonable billing and collection requirements. A hospital is prohibited from engaging in certain collection methods (for example, sending a debt to a credit agency or garnishing wages) until it makes reasonable efforts to determine whether an individual is eligible for assistance under the hospital’s financial assistance policy. 

• Perform a community health needs assessment. Each charitable hospital must conduct and publish a community health needs assessment at least once every three years – and disclose annually on its tax form the steps it is taking to address the health needs identified in the assessment. 

Charitable hospitals are more than half of the nation’s hospitals. These hospitals receive many benefits, including tax-free earnings and receipt of tax-deductible contributions. Coalitions may want to consider looking to charitable hospitals, and the community health needs assessment programs as a potential funding source for coalition activities that are focused on population health improvement.

EBN: Seven Tips for HR Professionals to Get Attention From the C-Suite

For many human-resources professionals, getting buy-in from the C-suite can be a challenge when top-level executives are strapped for time. Further, HR and C-suite representatives communicate in fundamentally different ways. Employee Benefits News reports on a CareerBuilder article by Beverly Flaxington, a certified professional behavioral analyst, in which she shares her tried-and-true tips for HR professionals to effectively communicate with executives and gain leverage to achieve their goals.

NCQA Launches Specialty Practice Recognition Program

The National Committee for Quality Assurance—architect of America’s most popular patient-centered medical home model—has extended medical home concepts to specialists and released its latest program: NCQA Patient-Centered Specialty Practice (PCSP) Recognition.

Now specialty practices committed to access, communication and care coordination can earn accolades as the “neighbors” that surround and inform the medical homes and colleagues in primary care.

Practices that become recognized will demonstrate patient-centered care and clinical quality through: streamlined referral processes and care coordination with referring clinicians, timely patient and caregiver-focused care management and continuous clinical quality improvement.

Earning NCQA Patient-Centered Specialty Practice Recognition shows consumers, private payers and government agencies that a specialty practice has undergone a rigorous review of its capabilities and is committed to sharing information and coordinating care. Recognition also signals to primary care practices that a specialty practice is ready to be an effective partner in caring for your shared patients.

New Resource for Community Health Assessment and Improvement Planning

The National Association of County and City Health Officials has developed the Resource Center for Community Health Assessments (CHAs) and Community Health Improvement Plans (CHIPs) to support local communities in their community health improvement efforts. This resource center is an online, publicly accessible venue available at no cost, that contains over 150 resources developed by and for health departments and their partners, including:

• Practical, customizable tools; 
• Key resources; 
• Example high-quality CHAs and CHIPs; and 
• “How-to” webinars and training materials. 

To access the CHA/CHIP Resource Center, visit www.naccho.org/chachipresources.

We hope NBCH members and their employer members will find the resource center helpful to their work.

For any questions, please e-mail: CHACHIP@naccho.org.

American Benefits Council's New, More User-Friendly Website

The American Benefits Council, an important strategic partner of NBCH, has announced its new, more user-friendly website. The Health Care Reform issue page is now divided into its component pages, covering the wide variety of health reform issues addressed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). These individual topics are:

• Employer Shared Responsibility
• Market Reforms & Adult Child/Age-26 Coverage
• Preventive Care & Value-Based Design
• Quality Improvement & Delivery Reform
• Essential Benefits
• Tax & Revenue Issues
• Grandfathered Plans
• Claims and Appeals
• Summary of Benefits & Coverage
• Information Reporting/W2
• Health Insurance Exchanges
• State Innovation (including waiver guidance and activity)
• Medical Loss Ratio & Mini-Med Plans
• Automatic Enrollment
• Wellness Programs
• Accountable Care Organizations
• Non-Discrimination (under Internal Revenue Code Section 105(h))

As always, these pages are listed with the Legislative items at the top with the Regulatory items below and the Judicial items at the bottom. You can always use the links at the top of the page to instantly jump to a specific section. Members are encouraged to visit ABC's website and explore these helpful resources.

Leading by Example- Creating a Corporate Health Strategy: The Kansas City Collaborative Experience

Leading by Example is a longstanding CEO-to-CEO worksite health promotion initiative. The new report documents the success of the Kansas City Collaborative (KC2), and includes real-world examples of the processes and practices used by the 16 employers that make up KC2 to improve employee health.

***NOTE: NBCH Coalition Members can find this and more in the Members Only section under Coalition Resources: http://nbch.org/Coalition-Resources***

Louisiana Business Group on Health Announces Worksite Wellness Toolkit

The Louisiana Business Group on Health (LBGH) announced today the release of their Louisiana Worksite Wellness Toolkit and Resource Guide. The Louisiana Worksite Wellness Toolkit and Resource Gide is a tool to assist worksites with implementing strategies that have been proven to be effective. 

The toolkit provides information to implement a broad range of strategies and/or programming: some will require very little or no resources while other strategies may require considerable resources. The toolkit shows employers ways to get started and make a difference in the health of employees, regardless of the size of the worksite and its available resources. Download the toolkit here... 

***NOTE: NBCH Coalition Members can find this and more in the Members Only section under Coalition Resources: http://nbch.org/Coalition-Resources***