Becker's ASC Review

51 HEALTHCARE NEWS Newark Beth Israel breaks ties with director of troubled heart transplant program By Mackenzie Bean M ark Zucker, MD, director of New- ark (N.J.) Beth Israel Medical Cen- ter's heart transplant program le his role Oct. 30 aer being on administrative leave for the last year, reports ProPublica. Newark Beth Israel said Dr. Zucker and hospital leaders "mutually agreed that this is an appropriate time for a formal leader- ship transition," according to a hospital news release shared with Becker's. Dr. Zucker will no longer be affiliated with Newark Beth Israel but will still main- tain privileges to treat private patients at other RWJBarnabas Health hospitals. West Orange, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health is Newark Beth Israel's parent system. Hospital leaders placed Dr. Zucker on ad- ministrative leave last year aer an October 2019 ProPublica investigation accused the hospital of keeping a patient in a vegetative state alive for a year to improve the trans- plant program's survival rate. Recordings obtained by the newsroom show Dr. Zucker instructed hospital staff to avoid giving the patient's family the option to withdraw care and switch to palliative treatments until aer September 2019, or one year aer his transplant. CMS investigated Newark Beth Israel aer ProPublica's exposé and identified several de- ficiencies with the heart transplant program, which the hospital has since corrected. e hospital hired outside experts to conduct its own investigation, which found that Dr. Zucker and the transplant team's post-trans- plant care for the patient was not unethical or compromised by concerns about survival rates, according to the hospital. "Newark Beth Israel Medical Center has always had a reputation for providing high quality care, state-of-the-art care, and I am truly proud to have worked there for more than three decades, served the community with honor, and contributed substantially to that reputation," Dr. Zucker said in a state- ment that his lawyer sent to ProPublica. Newark Beth Israel said it will soon begin a national search for a new heart transplant program director. n CMS releases second part of Medicare Advantage, Part D rule: 3 things to know By Morgan Haefner C MS issued part two of its proposed 2022 Medicare Advantage Advance Notice, which updates payment methodologies to Medi- care Advantage and Part D plans. Three things to know: 1. CMS plans to increase payment rates to Medicare Advantage plans by 2.82 percent compared to last year. 2. CMS wants to apply a coding pattern adjustment of 5.9 percent to reflect differences in diagnosis coding between Medicare Advantage plans and fee-for-service providers. The adjustment is the minimum for coding pattern differences required by law. 3. As outlined in part one of the proposed rule, risk scores used to calculate payment to Medicare Advantage plans in 2022 would rely entirely on encounter data as the source of diagnoses. In the past, CMS has used a blend of encounter data and diagnoses submitted to its risk adjustment process- ing system. n Georgia hospital closes after 6 years By Ayla Ellison Northridge Medical Center, a 90-bed hospital in Commerce, Ga., closed Oct. 31. The hospital closed less than seven years after opening its doors on Jan. 1, 2014. It cited a decline in patient volume as the reason for the closure. "In recent years, the area has grown and its population's healthcare needs have changed," the hospital said in a state- ment announcing the closure. "The demand of hospital inpa- tient services offered by NMC have continued to decline even in light of recent COVID-19 activity." Hospital leaders said all other options were explored before deciding to close Northridge Medical Center. "The decision to close and cease hospital operations was not one made lightly and only comes after exhausting all options to identify a sustainable path forward," the hospital said. "We are confident this decision will not have an adverse impact on patients' access to acute care and we will continue to work with local medical and community leaders to address acute care needs in Commerce." Northridge Medical Center joins 16 other rural hospitals across the U.S. that have closed since the beginning of this year. n

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