2019 Year in ReviewF L O R I D A H O S P I TA L A S S O C I AT I O N

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The Florida Hospital Association (FHA) provides a strong voice for Florida’s hospital community, advocating to improve access to affordable, quality health care for all Floridians. Through the leadership of the FHA Board of Trustees and member participation, FHA advocates for sound federal and state health care policy. The pages that follow offer a brief snapshot of FHA’s work in 2019.

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MEMBER DRIVEN ADVOCACYFHA continues to work at the state and federal levels to ensure access to health care, improve clinical performance and lower the cost of patient care.

2019 Legislative Session Highlights

Funding for the care of low-income children, pregnant women, the elderly and disabled continued to be a top priority for FHA. Yet again, drastic cuts to the Medicaid program were proposed during the 2019 Legislative Session. It was critical for lawmakers to fully understand the impacts further cuts would have on our communities. Therefore, FHA re-launched its “Cuts Won’t Heal” campaign. The grassroots effort empowered our patients and their families, caregivers and health care professionals to educate lawmakers on the true cost of cuts to this important program. Through member participation and advocacy, we were successful and achieved the FHA Board of Trustees’ primary goal for the 2019 Session: preventing additional cuts to Medicaid hospital payments.

Certificate of Need (CON) deregulation was a controversial hospital regulatory topic during thisyear’s Legislative Session. With member organizations on both sides of the issue, FHA worked for over a year to craft a compromise that would streamline the CON process. The final legislation deregulated CON. FHA continues to work with members and the Agency for Health Care Administration to fully implement the change in law.

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FHA was successful in defeating several punitive proposals aimed at hospitals, including legislation that would have jeopardized nonprofit hospitals’ tax-exempt status, cuts to Personal Injury Protection funding, creation of Advanced Birth Centers and public reporting of patient safety culture surveys.

Many of these issues, as well as a continued focus on reductions to Medicaid hospitalfinancing, will again be a topic of discussion during the 2020 Legislative Session. FHA standsready to work with Governor DeSantis administration, the Legislature and state agencies to ensure our patients and communities continue to have access to safe, effective care.

Federal Advocacy Highlights

FHA strongly supported comprehensive federal legislation to protect patients from surprise medical bills. FHA was a key advocate when Florida addressed the issue of surprise medical bills in 2016. The legislation directed health plans and non-participating providers to work out payment for services through a state-arranged, voluntary dispute resolution process, with a penalty assessed to the party that refused to accept an offer that was close to the final arbitration order. The negotiation is based on the usual and customary rate for the geographic area. FHA continues to encourage the entire Florida delegation to consider similar approaches to federal legislation.

For more than 25 years, the 340B Drug Pricing Program has provided financial help to hospitals serving vulnerable communities to manage rising prescription drug costs. FHA worked with the delegation to maintain support for the program to allow 340B hospitals to reduce the price of outpatient pharmaceuticals and expand health services to the patients and communities they serve.

FHA Political Giving

The purpose of the FHA Political Committee (FHAPC) is to support candidates who understand the vital role hospitals play in our state and the positive impact hospitals have on our economy. The FHAPC ensures hospitals have a united voice when decisions are made that affect the delivery of health care in our state. This year’s campaign saw a 38 percent increase in personal contributions and a 35 percent increase in the number of contributors over last year.

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IMPROVING HEALTH, OUTCOMES AND LOWERING COSTSThe Association continued its commitment to improve key determinants of health and quality. For more than a decade, FHA has led an array of initiatives focused on improving quality and reducing patient harm.

FHA’s Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (HIIN)

Nearly 100 hospitals are working collaboratively through FHA’s HIIN. This project, funded through a contract from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and in partnership with the American Hospital Association/Health Research and Educational Trust (AHA/HRET), is charged with reducing all-cause patient harm by 20 percent and all-cause readmissions by 12 percent by March 2020. Preliminary data shows participating hospitals have prevented more than 48,000 cases of harm and saved over $400 million in health care costs.

Improving the Health of Mothers and Babies

Improving the health and safety of mothers and babies continues to challenge Florida. Data indicates the high rates of cesarean births in the state lead to a higher maternal death rate. Additionally, infant death rates and the number of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome are increasing. To address this, the FHA Board of Trustees directed the Association to recruit at least 75 percent of FHA members with maternity programs to participate in at least one initiative addressing maternal and child health issues. This goal not only was achieved but exceeded.

FHA has 67 maternity hospitals and two freestanding children’s hospitals in its membership. To meet the goal, 52 FHA member hospitals must participate in one of the three initiatives. Currently, 58 FHA members are in at least one project, resulting in an 86 percent participation rate.

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Initiatives to Reduce Non-Urgent Use of Emergency Departments

This year, the Board directed the development of programs, initiatives and best practices in partnership with other key stakeholders to reduce non-urgent use of Emergency Departments. Working through the FHA Quality and Safety Committee, FHA encouraged members to adopt the Emergency Department Information Exchange (EDie) system to share ED data in real time, across the continuum of health care providers. Currently, 15 hospital locations and 165 skilled nursing facilities have implemented the EDie system. Ten more hospitals are in the process of implementing or contracting with EDie. Increasing the use of EDie will only further help hospital efforts to reduce preventable ED visits.

Workforce Innovation and Resilience

FHA convened a workforce leadership forum in November to facilitate discussion and exchange of ideas related to statewide priorities to promote workforce wellness, innovations in effective and efficient patient care delivery models, and workplace safety. Enhancing health care worker resilience has been identified by FHA’s Workforce Committee as a top priority for Florida’s hospitals. FHA, in partnership with Memorial Healthcare System, will launch a Workforce Resilience webinar series starting in January 2020. The 12-month series will provide evidence-based burnout solutions, including skills and tools, to enhance caregiver resilience.

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MEMBER ENGAGEMENT AND EDUCATION

FHA is a vital resource for its over 200-member hospitals and health systems as they work to improve quality and patient safety, streamline operations, recruit and retain a skilled workforce, build strong relations with lawmakers, strengthen public trust and reduce costs.

In 2019, FHA provided over 165 educational programs, a 6.25 percent increase over 2018. Nearly 5,000 participants received approximately $2.1 million in continuing educational value. FHA continues to offer Lean Six Sigma training programs, including Project Management courses and Yellow Belt and Green Belt certifications. The popularity of these offerings remains steady. A significant focus was spent on a variety of education offerings provided under the FHA HIIN to share best practices to improve quality and safety of patient care.

Other areas of education included legislative and regulatory issues, managed care, corporate compliance, privacy and security, Joint Commission, workforce and labor trends, and emergency management courses. FHA welcomed the following hospitals into the membership this year:

• Boca Raton Regional Hospital

• AdventHealth Heart of Florida

• AdventHealth Lake Wales

• Southern Winds Hospital

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