Georgia Certificate of Need Issues New Thresholds

Georgia has recently amended its Certificate of Need capital expenditures thresholds for single specialty physician owned ambulatory surgery centers and joint venture ambulatory surgery centers. These thresholds became effective on July 1, 2009. A copy of the memorandum containing the new thresholds is available here. Georgia CON Thresholds
So what does this mean for physicians and ASCs in GA? Hopefully the new thresholds will positivily impact the physicians ability to develop single specialty centers in GA as the thresholds have been increased from their historical limits. Costs which are not included towards the threshold are according to O.C.G.A. 31-6-40(a)(2)…” the expenditure or commitment of or incurring an obligation for the expenditure of funds to develop certificate of need applications, studies, reports, schematics, preliminary plans and specifications or working drawings, or to acquire sites;”…
For more information regarding the CON program in Georgia, please visit the GA CON website.

Question of the Day- Florida State Reporting

Does Florida require mandatory reporting for ambulatory surgery centers?

Facilities that meet the definition of an ambulatory center are required to report ambulatory patient data in accordance with Chapter 59B-9, Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.). You can find information regarding state reporting at the Florida Center for Health Information and Policy Analysis website. This website can be used as a reference when submitting and making corrections to your patient data report. Once you have accessed the website you will need to review the following documents:

• Reporting Period Schedule – The patient discharge data reporting schedule (1 page)
• Ambulatory/ED Patient Data Contact Personnel Documentation Form (1 page)
• Facility User Account Agreement Form – Form granting access to secure data upload internet site (3 pages)
• XML Schema – File format for reporting ambulatory patient data (7 pages)
• Sample XML file – Sample file of how your final report should look upon submission (3 pages)
• Chapter 59B-9 F.A. C. – Administrative rule mandating reporting of patient data to AHCA (9 pages)
• Ambulatory Patient Data Elements – A breakdown of all data elements in the file and its description (5 pages)
• AS/ED Audit Dictionary – A spreadsheet of the all audits your data will be processed through and a detailed description of the audit error message. (9 pages)
• Physician License Number Format for state reporting – The DOH Florida Medical License Search website

The Ambulatory/ED Patient Data Contact Personnel Documentation Form and the Facility User Account Agreement Form can be found at the website with the Resources link.

If you are using any type of IT that assist in state reporting you will want to forward the link labeled Ambulatory/ED XML Schema to your vendor/programmer. This document is the file format for reporting. The Ambulatory/ED Sample XML File is how your data should look when it is received by the Agency. This should also be forwarded to your vendor/programmer.
Again, all of this information is available on the AHCA SCHS website.

Submitted by Jessica Miller, Director of Regulatory Affairs

CDC issues 10 pandemic preparedness recommendations for outpatient facilities

The CDC has issued 10 recommendations for outpatient facilities to prepare for the possible flu pandemic they are anticipating this fall. They have also provided a useful “Medical Offices and Clinics Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist”. Among the CDC recommendations:

• Develop a Business Continuity Plan
• Protect your work place by asking sick employees to stay home
• Provide immunization at no cost to your employees
• Plan now so you will know where to turn to for reliable, up-to-date information in your local community

Many of the recommendations are just good common sense health practices, but developing a written plan to provide for these patients often encourages compliance.
To read the full list of recommendations, visit the CDC Website.

In the News- Morledge Family Eye Clinic

Ortmann Healthcare Consultants is always excited to hear when a town is anticipating the construction of a new ambulatory surgery center and medical office building to improve quality and access to healthcare. This is exactly what is happening for the Morledge Family Eye Clinic, located in Billings, Montana. Ortmann Healthcare Consultants was chosen as the developer for the ambulatory surgery center portion of this project and more details can be seen in this short news video clip that aired on Montana’s KTVQ.

Congratulations Samuel Cho, MD PC!

As noted yesterday, Ortmann Healthcare Consultants was on the front lines of the New York Accreditation deadline. We assisted Dr. Samuel Cho on accrediting his two office based surgery practices, one in Flushing and the other in Downtown Manhattan. Both facilities passed without deficiency continuing the Ortmann tradition of no deficiencies for any survey or inspection we have prepared for. Congrats again to Dr. Cho and his team for their tremendous work in achieving accreditation!

Red Alert- NY Office Based Accreditation Deadline is TOMORROW!

Tomorrow will be a day of reckoning for many office based surgery practices in New York. July 14th is the deadline by which all office based surgery practices must be accredited in order to continue practicing office based surgery in New York. Not only must you be accredited but the state must also have verification of your accreditation status. Those office based practices not in compliance will risk facing serious penalties if they continue to practice without accreditation. More information is available at the NY Department of Health website.

For those not in New York, you probably felt a little of the backlash if you have been trying to reach the accreditation agencies in the past week. They have been swamped with last minute requests and planning surveys.

If you are in New York, hopefully you were among the early birds in recognizing the importance of planning for your survey well before tomorrow’s deadline! If you would like to share your story, please leave it as a comment to this post. Ortmann Healthcare Consultants has personally been involved in the accreditation of two office based surgery practices in New York and it was certainly a challenge to bring our facilities up to speed since there has not been a regulation like this for them in the past!