Wednesday, March 15, 2023
ADVOCACY ALERT: Connect With Your State Legislators
Register: IHA Heart Healthy Initiative Webinar on 4/11
New Campaign Launched to Protect Medicaid Coverage
Proposed Rule on Remote Prescribing of Controlled Substances
Illinois COVID-19 Data
Briefly Noted
ADVOCACY ALERT: Connect With Your State Legislators
Illinois hospitals face dire financial distress due to dramatically higher labor, drug and supply costs. Without additional state support, access to care will continue to suffer as hospitals are forced to close units, limit services or, in extreme cases, consider closure. IHA strongly supports Senate Bill 1763 sponsored by State Sen. Ann Gillespie, which provides the first General Revenue Fund (GRF) Medicaid base rate increase for hospitals in 28 years.
ACTION REQUESTED: It’s critical that IHA members immediately contact your State Senator and State Representative and schedule a meeting to discuss your specific financial challenges. Provide concrete examples to demonstrate how a state investment in Medicaid hospital base rates will protect access to quality, equitable healthcare.
Click here to schedule a meeting with your State Senator and State Representative through email or phone. Please note that you will need to follow up with a phone call to your legislators’ offices to schedule these important meetings.
Legislators need to hear directly from hospital leaders with detailed information about the important ways your hospital benefits the surrounding community and region, and why an across-the-board increase to hospital Medicaid base rates is critical to preserve and improve equity in access to care for Medicaid customers.
An in-person meeting is strongly encouraged. During the meeting, ask your State Senator and State Representative to support and co-sponsor Senate Bill 1763. The General Assembly has scheduled a two-week “spring break” from legislative action in Springfield between April 3 and April 14. Legislators will return to their respective districts, representing an opportune time to schedule a meeting with your local lawmakers.
Click here to access a fact sheet that you can share with legislators.
Contact us with questions.
Register: IHA Heart Healthy Initiative Webinar on 4/11
Hypertension is common among Americans—impacting half the adult population—yet it’s less common for individuals with the condition to have it under control. Only one in four do. To guide your patients in blood pressure self-management, attend an IHA webinar, “Heart Healthy Initiative,” on April 11 from noon to 1 p.m.
The webinar will explore how the YMCA of the USA’s evidence-based Blood Pressure Self-Monitoring program helps individuals better manage their hypertension, which can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. The program uses Heart Healthy Ambassadors to teach patients to adopt regular self-monitoring and other heart-healthy activities.
Nurses, physicians, health educators, community health workers and anyone interested in chronic disease are encouraged to attend. There is no cost to participate. The webinar is funded by an Illinois Dept. of Public Health grant. Register today.
Contact us with questions.
New Campaign Launched to Protect Medicaid Coverage
The Pritzker Administration today launched a public awareness initiative to ensure Illinoisans retain their health insurance coverage when pandemic-era protections end and Medicaid eligibility verifications resume.
According to a news release, the Illinois Dept. of Healthcare and Family Services’ (HFS) public awareness effort, coined Ready to Renew, is a multi-platform outreach campaign that includes paid advertisements, print, digital and broadcast communication, and grassroots outreach to help Medicaid customers ensure they are ready for required upcoming coverage renewals.
HFS is urging healthcare providers and community organizations to help Medicaid customers get ready to renew their coverage. To access HFS’ Ready to Renew Toolkit, click here.
The first Medicaid renewal notices will begin to arrive in early May for people whose renewal is due by June 1. Renewals for all Medicaid customers will be requested on a rolling basis over a full year. Customers can renew through the Application for Benefits Eligibility (ABE) website by clicking here and selecting “Manage My Case” to set up their online account. Customers can also call 1-800-843-6154 for more information.
Links to these resources have been added to IHA’s COVID-19 PHE sunset webpage, which is frequently updated with information and updates on federal and state guidance documents and additional resources for hospitals and healthcare facilities preparing for the end of COVID-19 as a PHE. Click here to access links to current guidance on waivers, vaccine and masking, telehealth, Medicaid unwinding, and bed and service flexibilities.
Proposed Rule: Remote Prescribing of Controlled Substances
As noted in IHA’s March 3 memo covering the federal Public Health Emergency’s sunset, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) policies permitting health professionals to use remote prescribing for controlled substances without an in-person evaluation are scheduled to sunset when the Disaster Proclamation ends.
Proposed rules announced by the DEA on Feb. 24 (found here and here) indicate that future remote prescribing policies will provide healthcare professionals greater flexibility than they had prior to the Disaster Proclamation, but will be more restrictive than current policies. The proposal would stop prescriptions of these controlled medications via telehealth when a patient never has an in-person exam.
As proposed, providers would only be able to remotely prescribe a 30-day supply of Schedule III-V non-narcotic controlled medications or buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid use disorder without an in-person evaluation, unless a DEA-licensed professional sees the patient in person and refers the patient to a healthcare professional via telehealth to treat the same condition.
Under this proposed requirement, the Illinois Helpline’s program that connects consumers with remote, same-day access to medications like buprenorphine for substance use disorder treatment will be limited to a maximum 30-day supply, unless a hospital or other provider referral is made to the helpline following in-person treatment for the same condition. For any Schedule II medication or a Schedule III-V narcotic medication, proposed rules would return to pre-pandemic requirements, requiring an in-person evaluation prior to a remote prescription.
Final rules from the DEA are currently scheduled to take effect when the Disaster Proclamation ends. Healthcare professionals have a 180-day grace period from May 11 to comply with new requirements. Comments on the proposed rule are due by March 31 and can be submitted here.
Contact us with questions.
Illinois COVID-19 Data
The Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) is following the lead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with weekly reporting of new COVID-19 cases and deaths. IDPH reports weekly data on Wednesday of each week for the previous week ending Sunday. IDPH will continue daily reporting of ICU bed availability and hospital admission data.
A briefing document released by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that Paxlovid isn’t associated with COVID-19 “rebound,” a condition in which patients test positive or show symptoms days after a course of the drug is completed. Though concerns had been raised that the antiviral led to possible rebound, the FDA’s conclusion is that rebound is naturally associated with COVID-19 infection and is not associated with severe illness when it does occur.
Briefly Noted
A new study published in JAMA Network Open took a closer look at aggressive end-of-life care for older adults with cancer, finding that a majority of patients received invasive care in the last month of their lives. A review of 146,000 older patients with metatastic cancer, including those in nursing homes and non-institutionalized patients, found that the majority of both groups (64% of nursing home residents and 58% of non-institutionalized patients) received aggressive treatment in their final 30 days, with a quarter undergoing cancer treatment, such as surgery, radiation or chemotherapy.