Changes to the hospital safety net assessment program law include new provisions for the quality incentive program. The incentive program provides an additional $13 million a year to hospitals. Going forward, hospitals must be in compliance with existing Department of Health financial reporting requirements to qualify for the quality incentive payment. These reporting requirements include timely submission of monthly CHARS data of which the first reporting period begins with May 2017 data due on or before July 15th. Hospitals are allowed only three late submissions of this data before becoming ineligible for the quality incentive payment. We strongly urge hospitals to ensure they are submitting the required data in a timely manner.
The reporting requirements apply not only to timely monthly submission of CHARS data but also to other reporting requirements including timely submission of year-end reports, including employee compensation and hospital-based clinic data. WSHA staff met with DOH regarding the requirements and yesterday sent a detailed bulletin outlining the requirements to hospital CFOs and quality leaders. (Andrew Busz, andrewb@wsha.org)