Recent member news from the Jan. 14, 2016 Weekly Report.... Read More >>

The GroupHealth Foundation, which supports GroupHealth in provide care to members and build a healthier community, has awarded $300,000 in community grants to organizations that have innovative programs that provide access to preventative health services. The grants are thanks to the foundation’s year-end giving, which came from patients, staff, corporations, foundation and charitable organizations.... Read More >>

AWPHD member Verdant Health Solutions will host its Healthier Community Conference from 8:30am-4:30pm Feb. 29 at the Lynwood Convention Center, bringing together several of the Puget Sound Region’s leading experts in health, wellness and community building. The day will focus on personal, workplace and community health, and empowering individuals and organizations to make positive changes to live the healthiest lives possible.... Read More >>

Save the date for WSHA’s 2016 CEO and Trustee Patient Safety Summit May 16 or 17. In a world of health care reform, providing high-value health care is critical. Learn how your board can lead your organization in advancing quality and safety. Summit attendees will take home practical tools to help their board function more effectively and meet the challenging demands of the health care environment.... Read More >>

Johnese Spisso, UW Medicine chief health system officer and vice president of medical affairs for the University of Washington, has been named president of UCLA Health, CEO of UCLA Hospital System, and associate vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences. Johnese will oversee all operations of UCLA’s hospitals and clinics as well as the health system’s regional outreach strategy, effective Feb. 8.... Read More >>

Cassie Sauer, Claudia Sanders and Mary Kay Clunies-Ross talked about WSHA’s top priorities for the session, as well as how recent leadership changes might affect health care legislation this year.... Read More >>

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform Prospective Payment System (PPS) hospitals of changes to their Medicaid inpatient hospital payment rates effective January 1, 2016 due to changes to the Health Care Authority’s policy on paying for readmissions. HCA is replacing its existing policy of reviewing and denying individual readmission claims with a policy that uses a software program to compare each hospital’s rate of potentially preventable readmissions (PPR) rate with an expected rate based on the state’s general experience and the hospital’s mix of cases. Hospitals with higher than expected potentially preventable readmissions are subject to a penalty reduction applied to their inpatient payment rate.... Read More >>

Our 2015 PAC campaign was a terrific success, raising more than $210,000 – surpassing our ambitious goal of $200,000! This was the most our PAC has ever raised in a single year. Thanks to these contributions, we have contributed more than $77,000 to state and local candidates and more than $17,000 to federal candidates thus far in the 2015-2016 cycle. We will be giving the majority of the money raised to candidates during the summer of 2016. In the 2013-2014 cycle we were able to give more than $330,000 to local candidates and more than $37,000 to federal candidates.... Read More >>

WSHA is continuing to work the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) on an error the HCA made in calculations when making a budget neutrality adjustment in November. The HCA made an 8 percent reduction in inpatient Medicaid rates for prospective payment hospitals; WSHA questioned the validity of the change. WSHA is working with the HCA and encouraging them to make appropriate corrections for the next adjustment period, which starts Feb. 1.... Read More >>

The 2016 legislative session is now underway, and this year’s session is slated to be a short one. This year, a supplemental budget year, our top budget priority is mental health, which Governor Jay Inslee also identified as a major need in his December supplemental budget. We are hoping to continue the gains in mental health funding that began last year.... Read More >>