Newsletter

November 2, 2020


Program Spotlight: Virtual Customized Education for Your Organization

With so much change affecting the way we live, work and learn, ACHE is now offering virtual Choice, enabling leaders to continue to invest in their organization at their own pace.

Choice, ACHE’s customized professional education, allows leaders to choose from a variety of program formats and topic areas, including quality and safety, executive leadership, physician executive partnerships, and communication and relationship management. Now, ACHE will bring our experts to you virtually to provide convenient, cost-effective education designed to meet your organization's learning needs and close competency gaps.

Our program specialist will help you assess your needs, build a program and provide resources to promote your virtual event. Visit ache.org/Choice and get started today.

ACHE Announces Nominating Committee 2021 Slate

The ACHE Nominating Committee has agreed on a slate of leaders to be presented for approval at the Council of Regents meeting in March. All terms begin at the close of the Council meeting. Additional nominations for members of the Nominating Committee may be made from the floor at the annual Council of Regents meeting. Read the full list of nominees.

Students: Submit Entries for Essay Competition by Dec. 7

ACHE invites students to submit entries for the 2021 Richard J. Stull Student Essay Competition in Healthcare Management. The competition is open to students currently enrolled in either a graduate or an undergraduate U.S. or Canadian health administration program that participates in the ACHE Higher Education Network. Cash prizes will be awarded to the first-place, second-place and third-place essayists in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions. Complete details on eligibility and submission instructions are available here. ACHE must receive all submissions by close of business Dec. 7.

Book: Five Disciplines for Zero Patient Harm

Many occurrences of harm to patients during their care are preventable, but simply aiming for improvement won’t do; healthcare organizations must reset their patient safety goals to zero patient harm. Five Disciplines for Zero Patient Harm: How High Reliability Happens offers real-world, how-to guidance for driving fundamental change that consistently achieves safe patient care. For example, in Chapter 15, author and patient safety expert Charles A. Mowll, LFACHE, addresses how to transform your culture for harm-free healthcare. “Building a culture of safety in a hospital or healthcare system requires a clear, consistent, and continuous commitment from the board, CEO, and other senior leaders to provide the ongoing training, support, and encouragement that is required to achieve the goal of eliminating all preventable harm,” he writes.

Peruse the table of contents to learn more, and order this book today.

Call for Proposals: Management Innovations Exchange

ACHE invites authors to submit short PowerPoint presentations of their innovations for consideration for the Management Innovations Exchange to be held at ACHE’s 2021 Congress on Healthcare Leadership. This is a unique opportunity for authors to share the innovative work their organizations are doing with other healthcare leaders. We are interested in innovations addressing issues affecting your organization that might be helpful to others, including improving quality or efficiency, improving patient or physician satisfaction, implementation of EHRs, uses of new technology, and similar topics. Please go to ache.org/MIExchange for the full selection criteria and submission instructions. Presentations should be submitted as an e-mail attachment to MIExchange@ache.org by Jan. 25.

CMS Releases COVID-19 Vaccine Toolkit

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a set of toolkits for providers, states and insurers to help the healthcare system prepare to administer a COVID-19 vaccine once it is available. CMS states that these resources are designed to increase the number of providers that can administer the vaccine and ensure adequate reimbursement for administering it in Medicare while making it clear to private insurers and Medicaid programs their responsibility to cover the vaccine at no charge to beneficiaries. Additionally, CMS says it is going to increase reimbursement for any new COVID-19 treatments that are approved or authorized by the Food and Drug Administration.

To ensure access to a vaccine for U.S. seniors, CMS released an interim final rule with comment period that establishes that any vaccine that receives FDA authorization will be covered under Medicare as a preventive vaccine at no cost to beneficiaries. The interim final rule also implements provisions of the CARES Act that ensure swift coverage of a COVID-19 vaccine by most private health insurance plans without cost sharing from both in- and out-of-network providers during the pandemic.

You can learn more about these provisions and others in the interim final rule here. Additional resources include the following: