Becker's Hospital Review

59 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY WSJ report spurs House oversight of hospital accreditation processes By Emily Rappleye T he House Energy and Commerce Com- mittee is seeking information from CMS and four accreditation agencies, including e Joint Commission, to ensure their accreditation processes for hospitals in the Medicare and Medicaid programs follow federal standards and ensure patient safety. Representatives sent letters to e Joint Com- mission, the Bureau of Healthcare Facilities Accreditation, the Center for Improvement in Healthcare Quality and DNV GL Healthcare. e oversight is a direct response to a Septem- ber 2017 article published by e Wall Street Journal that found e Joint Commission rarely revokes its seal of approval when hos- pitals are not compliant with Medicare regu- lations. e report found 350 Joint Commission hospitals violated Medicare requirements in 2014, and more than one-third had addition- al violations in 2015 and 2016. More than 30 hospitals were able to keep their accreditation. "Although CMS has worked to strengthen its oversight of [accrediting organizations], the committee is concerned about the adequacy of CMS' oversight as well as the rigor of the AO survey process," the letter to CMS reads. "For example, according to CMS' most recent annual report to Congress, in [fiscal year] 2015, AOs conducting hospital surveys did not report 39 percent of 'condition level' de- ficiencies that were subsequently reported fol- lowing validation surveys conducted by State Survey Agencies no later than 60 days follow- ing the AO survey." e committee is seeking information on contracts between the AOs and CMS, com- plaints, correspondence about adverse events, and disparities between AO and state surveys, performance reviews and corrective actions, among other items. n Florida law puts 3-day limit on opioid prescriptions for acute pain By Brian Zimmerman R epublican Gov. Rick Scott on March 19 signed legislation to limit opioid pre- scriptions for acute pain in Florida to three days with some exceptions for seven-day pre- scriptions. The prescription limitation will not apply to cancer patients, those with terminal illness, those in pallia- tive care or patients with serious traumatic injuries, according to the Sun Sentinel. The law will also require prescribers to check the state prescription drug monitoring database before dispensing opioids and take continuing education courses on safe opioid prescribing. Additional provisions include increased penalties for providers who write medically unnecessary opioid prescriptions and additional reforms to address the problem of unlicensed pain manage- ment clinics. "I signed the Securing Florida's Future budget, which includes more than $65 million to support Florida's fight against opioids, and I am proud to continue our fight against opioids by signing this major legislation today," Mr. Scott said. "This bill will help limit the chance of drug addiction, re- duce the ability for dangerous drugs to spread in Florida's communities and give vulnerable Floridi- ans needed support." n Match Day 2018: 5 takeaways By Alyssa Rege T he National Resident Matching Program witnessed a record high 37,103 applicants in 2018 submitting program choices for a total of 33,167 residency positions, the most ever of- fered on Match Day, the NRMP announced. This year's Match Day took place March 16. According to the NRMP, the number of available first-year residency positions rose by 1,383 from 2017 to encompass a total of 30,232 positions. Here are five additional takeaways from Match Day 2018. 1. Of the 30,232 first-year residency positions offered, roughly half (14,695) positions involved various primary care specialties, including family and internal medicine. The number of first-year residency positions in internal medicine programs, specifically, totaled 7,542 positions in 2018. Roughly 97.6 percent of those positions were filled on Match Day. 2. All but 13 of the 2,278 first-year emergency medicine positions offered were filled this year. The number of emergency medicine positions increased 27.5 percent since 2014. 3. 2018 saw the highest number of Match registrants, totaling 43,909 individuals. NRMP officials attribute the increase to the growing number of students and graduates from U.S. osteopathic medical schools, which rose by 1,054 students in 2017 to encom- pass 6,054 students in 2018. 4. The NRMP also found the number of DO medical students and graduates participating in Match Day has risen 68.6 percent since 2014. The organization expects the number of DO student partici- pants to continue to grow during the next several years as a result of the transition to a single accreditation system. 5. The number of non-U.S. citizen international medical school students and graduate participants decreased for the second con- secutive year. This year, 7,067 non-U.S. citizen IMGs submitted pro- gram choices, down 217 from 2017 and down 393 from 2016. n

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