Newsletter

February 22, 2021

 

 

Program Spotlight: Join These Master CEOs at Congress

During the 2021 Congress on Healthcare Leadership, you can learn from CEOs who are leading the way in executive leadership, innovation, quality and safety, and care delivery.

If you attend Masters of Executive Leadership, you’ll learn from Nancy H. Agee, president/CEO, Carilion Clinic, and Wright L. Lassiter III, president/CEO, Henry Ford Health System, about how to find the inspiration and fortitude needed to make difficult decisions. Or, discover how to successfully employ innovation in strategies and operations during Masters of Innovation with Marc Boom, MD, FACHE, FACP, president/CEO, Houston Methodist, and Tina Freese Decker, FACHE, president/CEO, Spectrum Health.

Join Melinda Estes, MD, president/CEO, Saint Luke’s Health System, and Michael A. Slubowski, FACHE, FACMPE, president/CEO, Trinity Health, for a discussion about advances in healthcare quality and patient safety during Masters of Quality/Safety. Or, hear Marna P. Borgstrom, FACHE, CEO, Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale New Haven Health, and David L. Callender, MD, president/CEO, Memorial Hermann Health System, provide insight into the role that senior leaders play in leading delivery of care initiatives during Masters of Care Delivery.

We hope you will join us next month, March 22–25, to learn from the field’s most successful leaders during the Master Series Sessions at this year’s virtual Congress. Visit ache.org/Congress to register and to learn more.

Thank You For Supporting Future Leaders on ACHE’s Day of Giving

On Feb. 12, ACHE’s inaugural Day of Giving, you were invited to help advance healthcare leadership excellence by contributing to the Fund for Healthcare Leadership. The Fund provides scholarships for the future leaders of our field to attend the Senior Executive and Executive Programs, and it wholly supports the Thomas C. Dolan Executive Diversity Program.

Today, we extend our heartfelt gratitude for the 95 donations we received on the Day of Giving. Because of your generosity, we raised nearly $18,000 to support the next generation of leaders—leaders like Astrid Gonzalez Parilla, OTD, FACHE, vice president, operations, Halifax/Brooks Rehabilitation, and a 2019 Dolan scholar.

“I entered the program as an accomplished professional and finished the program as an empowered, confident, diverse healthcare executive. The competencies and skills I acquired as a Dolan scholar prepared me to accept a larger scope of responsibility at work, which led to a promotion,” Gonzalez Parilla says in an ACHE blog post, where you can read more about her experience and that of another Dolan scholar who benefited from the program.

When you donate to the Fund, you help provide resources for the future leaders of our field. Although the Day of Giving is over, the need to assist aspiring leaders continues. We hope you will join us in making a difference for talented individuals like Gonzalez Parilla. Please visit ache.org/Fund to learn more.

Your February Gift: Improving Organizational Communication 

As healthcare executives, you already know that effective leadership starts with communication. This month, we are offering two free resources to help you improve communication in your organization.

“It is important for leaders to have a tool kit to help them communicate strategically consistent messages to key stakeholders,” writes Lynn S. Cunningham, FACHE, in her article “A Tool Kit for Improving Communication in Your Healthcare Organization,” published in the Fall 2019 issue of ACHE journal Frontiers of Health Services Management. Cunningham, who has more than 40 years of healthcare experience, writes about evidence-based tools to strengthen leadership skills and drive better, sustainable results for healthcare organizations such as engaging employees through rounding and recognition, and cascading information strategically.

Then, in a chapter about communications, technology and social media from the book The Healthcare Leader’s Guide to Actions, Awareness and Perception, Third Edition, authors Carson F. Dye, FACHE, and Brett D. Lee, PhD, FACHE, stress the critical importance of communication in garnering staff support, and how it can make the difference between success and failure for otherwise talented executives. In this chapter, they share protocols for executives to enhance their interactions, whether formal ones in the boardroom, informal ones in the hallway, or those written on paper, in email or on social media. If you like this chapter and want to learn more, you can order the book here.

ACHE Graduate Student Scholarships Due March 31

Interested applicants still have a month to submit their online applications for 2021 Dent and McGaw scholarships. Offered annually, the Albert W. Dent and Foster G. McGaw Graduate Student Scholarships are awarded to outstanding students enrolled in their final year of graduate programs in health services administration to help finance their education. Each scholarship is worth $5,000. Every year, ACHE awards up to a total of 15 scholarships. Applications for the scholarships are due March 31. To learn more, visit the Albert W. Dent and Foster G. McGaw Graduate Student Scholarship web pages for more information.

CMS Ensures Medicare Beneficiaries Have Access to COVID-19 Antibody Treatment

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Thursday it will cover and pay for infusions of an investigational monoclonal antibody therapy given to Medicare beneficiaries.

The therapy, bamlanivimab and etesevimab, which are administered together, received a U.S. Food and Drug Administration Emergency Use Authorization for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients with positive COVID-19 test results, who are at high risk for progressing to a severe form of the disease and/or hospitalization. The therapy can only be administered in settings in which healthcare providers have immediate access to medications to treat a severe infusion reaction, such as anaphylaxis, and the ability to activate the emergency medical system, if necessary. CMS recommends that healthcare providers review this EUA of bamlanivimab and etesevimab fact sheet regarding the limitations of authorized use when these antibodies are administered together.

During the pandemic, Medicare will cover and pay for these infusions the same way it covers and pays for COVID-19 vaccines, when furnished in a manner consistent with the FDA EUA. CMS identified a specific code for the monoclonal antibody product and a specific administration code for Medicare payment for the antibody EUA, which became effective Feb. 9, 2021:

Q0245:

  • Long descriptor: Injection, bamlanivimab and etesevimab, 2100 mg
  • Short descriptor: bamlanivimab and etesevima

M0245:

  • Long descriptor: intravenous infusion, bamlanivimab and etesevimab, includes infusion and post administration monitoring
  • Short descriptor: bamlan and etesev infusion

For additional information, please visit the following resources:

  • List of COVID-19 monoclonal antibody infusion billing codes, payment allowance and effective dates.
  • Monoclonal antibody COVID-19 infusion program instruction.
  • CMS COVID-19 vaccine provider toolkit.

Podcast: The Health of the Healthcare Economy

In this latest episode of the Healthcare Executive Podcast, Paul H. Keckley, PhD, managing editor of The Keckley Report, and a contributor to the “Public Policy Update” column in Healthcare Executive magazine, offers a frank perspective about the impact of COVID-19 on the financial health of the field. He also opines on what forces will continue to exert influence as we move forward.

Keckley will moderate a panel discussion on the current and future state of the healthcare landscape with the CEOs of the American Hospital Association, American’s Health Insurance Plans and the American Medical Association at the 2021 Congress on Healthcare Leadership, March 22–25.

Visit HealthcareExecutive.org/Podcast to listen and browse through more episodes. The podcasts are also available by searching for “Healthcare Executive” in Apple Podcasts or on iTunes.