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HealthInsight gets CMS contract to improve Indian Health Service

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The CMS has awarded a contract to  HealthInsight to improve care quality at the Indian Health Service’s hospitals, first by fixing alarming deficiencies there that have attracted federal scrutiny. HealthInsight,  a nonprofit, community-based organization, is charged with “supporting, building and redesigning if needed” the infrastructure of IHS hospitals.

“IHS hospitals—and our staff members across the country—are focused on continuous improvement. (HealthInsight) will provide training for our staff and access to experts to strengthen IHS capacity to deliver quality health care for American Indian and Alaska Native patients,” said Mary L. Smith, IHS’s principal deputy director.

HealthInsight operates in Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah, which have large populations of Native Americans. It serves as the CMS’s quality-innovation network-quality improvement organization for those states under a five-year contract that began July 2014 .

“HealthInsight works with providers and the community on multiple, data-driven quality initiatives to improve patient safety, reduce harm, engage patients and families, and improve clinical care locally and across our region,” the organization’s Web site explains. That involves “transforming physician practices, employing lean methodology, assisting with value-based purchasing programs and developing innovative approaches to quality improvement.”

Although the contract particularly targets  Medicare beneficiaries,  the CMS said that the work involved would “result in systemic change that improves all of the care provided at these facilities.”

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CMS yanking Indian Health Service hospital’s Medicare contract

 

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CMS has terminated Rosebud (S.D.) Indian Health Service Hospital’s Medicare contract, effective March 16.

The action, which would be a huge financial blow to the hospital, came after CMS identified  patient-safety issues at the 35-bed facility, including broken sterilizing equipment and reports of a woman giving birth to a premature baby on a bathroom floor. The hospital later closed its emergency room and submitted a plan  to CMS to address the deficiencies. But last month,  CMS identified new violations at the hospital.

Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board CEO Jerilyn Church noted that the termination of the hospital’s Medicare contract could create significant challenges for patients in the area.

“{The board} is deeply concerned about the impact on the lives of those who rely solely on the Indian Health Service for their care. We call on Congress, leadership within HHS and IHS to implement for long-term, systemic improvements within the IHS,” she told the Argus Leader, a local newspaper.

An IHS spokesman told the Argus Leader that the agency will ask CMS to   let  the hospital  restore all services by meeting safety and quality requirements. If CMS agrees, the hospital would be able to continue billing Medicare for services.

 


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