Hospital finances show improvement, a new lead in the Governor’s office and a debut for AzCHER’s on-demand training top this week’s Arizona health news.
Hospital operating margins improve slightly
KaufmanHall released its April 2023 financial report earlier this week showing data from more than 900 hospitals nationwide. After 15 months of negative operating margins, hospitals finally broke even in April. While this is an improvement, breaking even does not allow hospitals to reinvest in facilities and equipment, both of which can lead to improved quality of care. Overall inpatient and outpatient volumes dropped in April, but bad debt and charity care increased. This could signal that some hospitals are feeling the effect from Medicaid disenrollments which began in some states (including Arizona) on April 1. Stay tuned for Arizona-specific detail which will be posted during the first half of June in the 2023 Q1 AzHHA Quarterly Financial Analysis.
Gov. Hobbs names new Chief of Staff
This week, Governor Katie Hobbs announced her new chief of staff following the departure of Allie Bones from the position. Former House Minority Leader Chad Campbell has earned the top spot in the Hobbs administration. Healthcare industry veterans might recall working with former Rep. Campbell during Medicaid expansion in 2013 when he was a key player in negotiations with then Gov. Jan Brewer to pass Medicaid expansion. Campbell’s appointment has been widely celebrated by politicos on both sides of the aisle, who praise his experience and history of bipartisan dealmaking as a welcome addition to the executive. Campbell will begin his new role on Monday, June 5.
AzHHA releases DataGen reports
In relationship with DataGen, AzHHA distributes reports to hospitals based on information submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This data helps hospitals understand the financial impact of proposed changes and annual updates. The reports can also assist in preparing budgets or benchmarking results with other similar organizations. DataGen generates hospital-specific reports which are sent to AzHHA hospital members as part of their membership. Below is the list of reports recently sent to members:
- FFY 2024 IPPS Proposed Rule Sent 5/4/2023
- FFY 2024 LTCH Proposed Rule Sent 5/9/2023
- FFY 2024 Wage/Occ Mix "Final" analysis Sent 5/15/2023
- FFY IPPS Proposed Rule (Refined) Sent 5/30/2023
Sponsorship opportunities open for the AzHHA Foundation’s 2023 Arizona Hospital Leadership Conference
Sponsorship opportunities are now available for the 2023 Arizona Hospital Leadership Conference, October 25-27 at the beautiful Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson. View our sponsorship prospectus to learn more about our bundled options or stand-alone sponsorships. The number of sponsors is limited to maintain the personal nature of this experience while also maximizing opportunities for sponsors to have face-time engagement with attendees.
NEW - AzCHER on-demand training
The Arizona Coalition for Healthcare Emergency Response (AzCHER) introduces its on-demand training modules for hospital and healthcare partners. Current training includes the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) with a set of guiding principles for exercise programs, as well as a common approach to exercise program management, design and development, conduct, evaluation and improvement planning. Crisis Standards of Care and Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) modules are coming soon. Learn more at https://azcher.org/azcher-training-and-education/.
UPCOMING EVENTS
June 8 - FREE WEBINAR: Meta Pixel and Other Online Tracking Technologies—Investigation and Legal Response
ATTN: Mar/Comm, IT, Legal and Compliance – following a recent news investigation into healthcare organizations’ use of online tracking technologies for marketing purposes (such as Meta Pixel), the Office for Civil Rights and the Federal Trade Commission have initiated investigations and class-action lawsuits have been filed across the country. This webinar will explore the legal issues involved in the use of online tracking technologies and discuss investigation and response. Speakers include:
- Kristen Rosati, an attorney at Coppersmith Brockelman in Phoenix. She is considered one of the nation’s leading “Big Data” and HIPAA compliance attorneys and is a Past President and a Fellow of the American Health Law Association.
- Nate Kunz, an attorney at Coppersmith with substantial experience in data-related class action and other commercial litigation.
- Andrew Shaxted, a Managing Director at FTI Consulting. He is an interdisciplinary technologist and lawyer specializing in privacy engineering, data and analytics, ad tech, digital forensics and privacy governance.
Join us June 8 from 12-1:30 p.m., free of charge to AzHHA members. To receive the Zoom link on the day prior to the webinar, register here.
June 13-14 – Critical Incident Stress Management Peer Team Training for Crisis Intervention
As crises in the workplace and community disasters are becoming more frequent, the need for effective psychological crisis response capabilities becomes obvious. As a result, AzCHER will be offering Group and Individual Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Peer Team Training for Crisis Intervention in the Tucson area. CISM represents a powerful, yet cost-effective approach to deal with the resultant psychological, emotional and spiritual effects from a crisis. This training will help your facility create and maintain a CISM Peer Team for both Individual and Group debriefing. Lunch will not be provided, so please plan accordingly.
- Abrams Public Health Center: 3950 S. Country Club Rd, Tucson, Arizona, 85714
- June 13-14, 7:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. - capacity for 25 people
- To register, contact Cheryl Hewlett at [email protected].
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