Last week, Parkland got word that CMS will be onsite before Sept. 6 to investigate whether it put its patients in “immediate jeopardy.” The hospital must submit a plan of correction by tomorrow, which will be evaluated by unannounced investigators at some point during the next two-and-a-half weeks.
Head over to D Healthcare Daily for details on what Parkland vows to do in the wake of the warning and a response from CEO Fred Cerise.
This is the same warning that triggered the estimated $75 million overhaul in 2011, which corrected 499 issues and ended with Dallas County’s sole public health system avoiding having its federal funding yanked.
Beyond saying the warning involves “the care provided to a single patient,” Parkland officials are staying mum on what led to this, citing federal privacy laws. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Texas Department of State Health Services, which also notified Parkland of the same concerns CMS has, are not commenting further.
And about that warning: “Immediate Jeopardy” is the most severe that CMS can issue a hospital. For this fiscal year, CMS has issued 15 such warnings to the 516 Medicare-certified hospitals in Texas, says David R. Wright, spokesman for Region 6 of CMS, which includes Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Of those 15, 12 were for non-compliance with the Medicare Conditions of Participation and three were for violations of Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
Parkland fell into the former category, Wright said. A hospital must meet 22 defined Conditions of Participation to receive reimbursements for treating Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. The reason: “The purposes of these conditions are to protect patient health and safety and to ensure that quality care is furnished to all patients in Medicare-participating hospitals.”
Nobody’s spilled what specifically landed Parkland in immediate jeopardy.
The formal warning follows an onsite inspection, which includes interviews and record reviews at the hospital.
“The hospital has until tomorrow (August 19) to submit a plan of correction detailing how they will remove the immediate jeopardy and demonstrate compliance with our health and safety requirements,” Wright wrote in an email. “Following approval of that plan, another unannounced onsite inspection will occur, prior to September 6, to ensure those plans and corrections have been implemented.”
