IHA Weekly News - Oct. 5, 2022
IHA Advertorial Highlights Continued Financial Challenges for Hospitals
A recent survey of Indiana hospitals highlights the significant increase in costs hospitals must bear – an unprecedented workforce crisis, skyrocketing costs of drugs, labor, and equipment, and lingering supply shortages that strain resources and threaten access to care. Meanwhile, inflation has exacerbated these increases, resulting in widespread financial losses. These financial impacts are hitting just as hospitals are rebuilding from the highest inpatient levels in our state’s history, and they are compounded by looming reductions in government payment programs that will be especially difficult for our safety net and rural facilities to sustain.
In a recent advertorial in the Indianapolis Business Journal, IHA President Brian Tabor highlights these challenges and more.
View the full article.pdf
Senators Manchin & Braun Urge HHS to Crack Down on Pharmaceutical Company Violations
U.S. Senators Joe Manchin and Mike Braun urged U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to crack down on the actions of numerous pharmaceutical companies who continue to violate the 340B Drug Pricing Program that helps provide medicines to low-income West Virginians and Hoosiers. There are 37 hospitals in the state of West Virginia and 58 hospitals in the state of Indiana that participate and rely on the 340B Program.
"Our members are grateful to Senator Braun and Senator Manchin for leading in support of health care providers in Indiana and West Virginia, as well as those across the country on this urgent issue. The 340B drug pricing program is critical for hospitals and other entities that serve low-income patients. Given the current financial difficulties that our members are facing, further erosion of the 340B program threatens access to care in communities across Indiana," said Brian Tabor, President of the Indiana Hospital Association.
Read the full press release.
AHA Coding Case Study & Webinar
Cameron Memorial Community Hospital, an independent critical access hospital in northeastern Indiana, shares how it embraced the use of ICD-10-CM Z codes to detect and address patients’ social needs as part of the hospital’s health equity strategy.
View AHA's case study.
Want to understand the who-what-when-where-and-why of Z codes? Join AHA’s Coding Clinic experts, including IHA's Quality & Patient Safety Advisor Madeline Wilson, on Oct. 18 at 1 p.m. ET for a discussion of “Z codes,” the ICD-10-CM categories for social determinants of health and social needs. Experts will cover official coding guidelines affecting these codes and their application, along with Z codes’ importance for promoting health and equity.
Learn more and register here.
