President’s ReportPhysician RecruitmentNew Air Ambulance Notification Requirement2017 NDHA PAC CampaignFive Communities Awarded Grants to Strengthen Opioid Addiction Treatment...SRHT Project 2017-18 Application Process Opens SoonNDHA Convention Sponsors

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Phone: 701-224-9732Fax: 701-224-9529Web Site: www.ndha.org

Jerry Jurena, PresidentTim Blasl, Vice PresidentCallen Cermak, Finance ManagerLori Schmautz, Executive AssistantPam Cook, Education DirectorMelissa Hauer, General Counsel

A portion of this publication is supported by The Center for Rural Health’s Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program. Visit their site at http://rural-health.und.edu/projects/flex/.

The Informer

In This Edition:

Attachments:

NDHA Contacts

August 28, 2017

President’s Report ~ Jerry Jurena The Affordable Care Act (ACA): On September 6, state insurance commissioners will testify before the Senate’s Health Committee and governors will testify on September 7 on steps Congress can take to help make health insurance available at affordable prices. Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) stated any solution passed by Congress regarding a stabilization package will have to be small, bipartisan, balanced and must give states “flexibility”.

Health Care Reform Review Committee: On Thursday, August 24, 2017, Representa-tive George Keiser hosted a planning meeting to discuss agenda items for the upcom-ing second interim Health Care Reform Review committee meeting. The meeting will begin with an overview of managed care by Maggie Anderson from the Department of Human Services. Representative Keiser would like to follow with a presentation on Managed Care 101 and several names were suggested. In the afternoon there will be a presentation on the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) and self-insurance of the public employee health insurance plan. A meeting date has not yet been deter-mined. The third meeting of the Health Care Reform Review Committee will go deeper into managed care and Representative Keiser would like to hear from other states on successes and failures in initiatives to move to manage care. He would also like to hear from some providers outside of the state and within the state on their perspective. Representative Keiser did inform the group that all of the Committee’s work and rec-ommendations have to be completed by July 2018.

Rick Pollack named as top association exec among 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare 2017: Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, earned first place in Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare for 2017 in the association category, for his hard work in lobbying against the GOP’s Afford-able Care Act repeal-and-replace legislation in the House and Senate.

Influencing candidates in their decision making...

Most physician candidates know that they are a valuable asset for any community and that they can be very selective where they choose to interview. Candidates realize that it’s a two way street in that they need a patient panel and admitting hospital for their sick patients and hospitals and clinics need them. Finding that right opportunity is difficult and there are many variables that go into the candidate’s final selection.

Never come across as desperate for candidates to interview at our site (even though we may be desperate for a new provider). Desperation is a red flag for most candidates and they will steer away from us if we come across this way to them. Winning candi-dates over will make a huge impact in their decision making process. Kindness and listening are key when visiting with candidates and follow up with why our opportunity is attractive and why we like living in our community. Don’t oversell, but as they say: “always be closing”.

We always want to be encouraging, welcoming and generous with our phone time with potential candidates to send the right message. The candidates are making their own assessments of us (sizing us up) long before they accept or arrive for a site visit. Influ-encing our candidates: win, win.

If I can assist you in your physician recruitment efforts, please contact me at north-dakotarec@comcast.net or 701-320-2109.

Physician Recruitment ~ Kevin Malee

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A new State law went into effect on August 1 regarding how hospitals access air ambulance services for non-emergency trans-fers. North Dakota hospitals are now required to give written notice to patients regarding whether an air ambulance service provider is in or out of insurance networks before the hospital refers the patient to, or initiates contact with, an air ambulance service provider for a non-emergency transfer. The purpose of the notice is to allow the patient to make an informed decision on choosing an air ambulance service provider or form of transportation.

A hospital will have met the requirement if it provides the patient, or the patient’s representative, with the health insurance network status of the air ambulance service provider published by the North Dakota Insurance Department, which may be ac-cessed at www.nd.gov/ndins.

Again, this notice is required for non-emergency transports only. A hospital is exempt from complying with the notice require-ment if the hospital determines and documents that due to emergency circumstances, compliance might jeopardize the health or safety of the patient. A hospital may also want to place a copy of the written notice in the patient’s record along with the name of the person who received the notice.

New Air Ambulance Notification Requirement

2017 NDHA PAC Campaign Our campaign is underway. The NDHA Political Action Committee (PAC) gives individuals who care about hospital issues the opportunity to speak with a strong, unified voice. The NDHA PAC makes contributions to state and federal candidates, from both political parties, who support the goals of hospitals.

• 2017 PAC Goal: $15,800 • Total Donations to Date: $ 4,600

Thank you to the following individuals for their leadership and support of this year’s PAC campaign.

Dave Molmen Altru Health System, Grand Forks Jeff Drop CHI – Fargo Mariann Doeling CHI St. Alexius Health Carrington Medical Center Keith Heuser CHI Mercy Health, Valley City Becki Thompson CHI Oakes Hospital Andrew Lankowicz CHI St. Alexius Health Devils Lake Hospital Tim Sayler Essentia Health, Fargo Theo Stoller Jacobson Memorial Hospital, Elgin Dan Kelly McKenzie County Healthcare Systems, Watford City Jerry Jurena NDHA Tim Blasl NDHA

Our Club Level Contributors:

Ben Franklin Club Chairman’s Club Capitol Club Dave Molmen Jeff Drop Jerry Jurena Keith Heuser Tim Blasl Dan Kelly Andrew Lankowicz Tim Sayler

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAug. 11, 2017

Contacts: Heather Steffl at 701-328-4933 or LuWanna Lawrence at 701-328-1892

BISMARCK, N.D. – The North Dakota Department of Human Services has awarded grants to five communities to strengthen local efforts to treat opioid use disorder, support recovery, and save lives by preventing overdose deaths.

Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks, Minot and Valley City will receive funding from the 2017 State Targeted Response to the Opioid Crisis Grant (Opioid STR). Grant recipients include the City-County Health District in Valley City, N.D.; the city of Fargo and Fargo Cass Public Health; the city of Grand Forks and Grand Forks Public Health; First District Health Unit of Minot; and the Heartview Foundation and Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health.

In June, the department invited communities to submit proposals. To be considered, communities were required to demon-strate need and the local capacity to address the opioid crisis across the continuum from prevention to recovery. Awarded com-munities will implement strategies to increase access to evidence-based treatment and recovery support services. Communities will also reduce overdose-related deaths through prevention efforts, specifically dissemination of the life-saving drug naloxone.

“We are excited to have this opportunity to support communities in addressing the opioid crisis in a comprehensive, but locally-driven way, that includes prevention, treatment and recovery,” said Laura Anderson, prevention administrator for the department’s Behavioral Health Division.

Anderson said each community will receive $180,000, and grant-funded efforts are expected to begin this month and run through April 15, 2018.

Overdose deaths in North Dakota increased from 20 deaths in 2013 to 61 deaths in 2015.1 The Centers for Disease Control reported that during 2015, drug overdoses accounted for 52,404 U.S. deaths, including 33,091 (63.1 percent) that involved an opioid.2

Opioids include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription.

In April 2017, the federal Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and Center for Substance Abuse Prevention awarded all states funding for the fiscal year 2017 State Targeted Response to the Opioid Crisis Grants. The funding was authorized by the 21st Century Cures Act.

North Dakota is dedicating a minimum of 80 percent of its $2 million grant to treatment and recovery services, and using the rest for prevention and data collection, reporting and evaluation.

The state intends to continue to offer other types of support to other North Dakota communities struggling to address opioid abuse and overdoses.

Grant activities will build on existing efforts, supplementing current partnerships and activates, including the Stop Overdose campaign, a collaborative effort involving the department and the Reducing Pharmaceutical Narcotics Task Force. That state-wide initiative focuses on saving lives by sharing information and providing resources for prescribers, pharmacists, behavioral health counselors, first responders, and family and friends of people with opioid use disorder.

Resources addressing the state’s opioid epidemic are available online at https://behavioralhealth.dhs.nd.gov/addiction/opi-oid or by contacting the North Dakota Department of Human Services’ Behavioral Health Division at 1237 W. Divide Ave., Suite 1D, Bismarck, N.D., 58501, 701-328-8919, or ndbhd@nd.gov.

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Five Communities Awarded Grants to Strengthen Opioid Addiction Treatment and Recovery and to Prevent Overdose Deaths

On behalf of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), Rural Health Innovations (RHI), a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Rural Health Resource Center, is excited to announce the next consultation opportunity for eligible rural hos-pitals through the Small Rural Hospital Transition Project (SRHT) Project. The SRHT Project is funded by The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) through a contract to RHI.

The application process for interested hospitals opens Monday, September 25 and closes midnight Monday, October 16. The National Rural Health Resource Center made a general announcement in its August 15 Timely Transitions newsletter.

The purpose of the SRHT Project is to provide on-site technical assistance (TA) to nine small rural hospitals to assist them in bridging the gaps between the current health care system and the newly emerging system of health care delivery and pay-ment. Two types of TA projects, Financial Operational Assessment (FOA) and Quality Improvement/Transition of Care, are offered.

Eligible hospitals must be located in a rural (non-metro) persistent poverty county or a rural census tract of a metro per-sistent poverty county as defined by FORHP and have 49 staffed beds or less as reported on the hospital’s most recently filed Medicare Cost Report. Detailed information concerning participation and readiness requirements information is available at these links.

If you have any questions at this time, please feel free to contact Bethany Adams or Rhonda Barcus at the National Rural Health Resource Center.

SRHT Project 2017-2018 Application Process Opens Soon!Page 4

NDHA Convention SponsorsNDHA would like to recognize and thank the following sponsors of the 2017 NDHA Annual Convention & Trade Show:

Diamond Level Gold Level Bronze LevelBronze Level

Bronze Level

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Lunch Sponsor

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Bronze Level