Dive Brief:
- CMS sent a letter to the Rosebud Indian Health Service (IHS) hospital indicating it would terminate its Medicare contract if the government-operated hospital fails to prove its patient safety within the next two weeks.
- The terminated contract would be effective on March 16.
- In addition to ending the hospital's ability to bill for Medicare services, funds would be affected for other services, costs and maintenance projects, the Argus leader reports.
Dive Insight:
The event should come as little surprise to the hospital, which was warned last year that it would lose its federal funding due to a number of deficiencies. An HHS and CMS inspection uncovered problematic cases, such as one in which the hospital failed to communicate about a patient with untreated tuberculosis, and another in which they waited an hour before treating a heart attack platient.
As a result of these findings, the hospital closed down its ER and created an action plan to address the issues.
Last month, CMS detected new violations of Medicare requirements, Rapid City Journal reported.
Meanwhile, hospital officials argue the termination worsens the situation for patients.
"The GPTCHB [Great Plains Tribal Chairmen's Health Board] is deeply concerned about the impact on the lives of those who rely solely on the Indian Health Service for their care," CEO Jerilyn Church told the Argus Leader.
"We call on Congress, leadership within HHS and IHS to implement for long-term, systemic improvements within the IHS," Church said.