In Brief: CDPH Wants To Up Fines On Hospital Errors; CHA Warns Of SNF Closures
CDPH Wants To Up Fines On Hospital Errors
Regulations proposed by the California Department of Public Health would significantly increase the administrative penalties for hospitals that have deficiencies with the potential to harm or kill patients.
Current penalties range from $50,000 to $100,000 for any deficiency the agency has concluded places a patient in immediate jeopardy of harm or death, such as an accidental medication overdose or a surgical sponge that is left in a patient’s body after a procedure. The amount of the penalty increases with the number of times the hospital has been previously cited.
Under the proposal, the CDPH would fine hospitals $25,000 for any deficiency that doesn't harm patients but has the potential to inflict more than minimal harm – a monetary penalty that did not exist in the past. Fines for deficiencies found to put patients in immediate jeopardy of harm or death would range from $75,000 to the first offense to $125,000 for third and subsequent deficiencies. Financial penalties would also be enhanced if the patient suffers actual physical harm, or if the violation was found to be willful on the hospital's part.
Rural and smaller hospitals would also be able to make payments of the penalties over an extended period of time, or request a reduction if it causes financial hardship.
Altogether, the CDPH has fined 150 hospitals $11.9 million since 2007, when the agency was given the statutory power to regulate providers for serious medical errors. To date, it has collected $8.8 million. The remainder of the fines and penalties are under appeal, a laborious process that can take years.
The CDPH is accepting public comments on the proposed regulations until 5 p.m. on Aug. 9.
CHA Warns Of SNF Closures
The California Hospital Association has warned that skilled nursing facilities within acute care providers are in danger of closing down due to Medi-Cal funding cuts.
According to the CHA, the 96-bed Palomar Continuing Care Center, which is part of the Palomar-Pomerado Health system, will be shutting down next month, and it expects further closures in the near future.
“California’s healthcare safety net has been shredded by years of underfunding to the Medi-Cal program,” said CHA President/CEO C. Duane Dauner. “The announced closure of Palomar Health’s hospital-based skilled-nursing center is only the first of many likely hospital closures that will occur throughout the state unless lawmakers immediately reverse these devastating cuts.”
The reductions were part of a bill signed into law in 2011 that cut Medi-Cal payments to hospital-based SNFs as much as 25 percent. The cuts were only recently enacted after nearly two years of legal wrangling.
The CHA is advocating AB 900. That bill would restore some of the payments cut to hospital-based SNFs. It passed the Assembly unanimously in May, and is currently in Senate committee hearings.
