Facility e-Newsletter Header
A publication produced by COPIC
Facility Patient Safety & Risk Management
"Tomorrow is the most important thing... It's perfect when it arrives, and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."
 
----John Wayne, Actor  
Medical Trivia Question
Q: The oldest known infectious disease is what?

Answer is located at the bottom of this column. 
In This Issue
COPIC Quick Links
Colorado Candor Act
Colorado Professional Review Act
Save the Date: 2019
COPIC Legal Navigator(TM)
Legislative Updates
NEW! Law Enforcement Interactions Resource
Value-Added Resources
COPIC Points Program for Facilities
Regulatory News
News and Tools
Contact Us
 

Upcoming Educational Conferences
Colorado
Colorado Hospital Association Annual Meeting
Sept. 18-20, 2019
Vail Marriott Resort
Vail, CO

Nebraska
Oct. 16-18, 2019
Embassy Suites Conference Center
La Vista, NE 

man_in_seminar
COPIC Quick Links



Facility Loss Run
Please contact
Johnathan Leopold at
(720) 858-6171 for questions regarding loss runs.


Username/Password
Contact Charesse Hansen  at (720) 858-6127  for COPIC username and password assistance.
 
Medical Trivia Answer
Q: The oldest known infectious disease is what?

A: Leprosy.

COPIC Logo
 July 2019
Colorado Candor Act: Effective July 1, 2019
The Colorado Candor Act went into effect on July 1, 2019. It establishes a voluntary framework for health care providers and facilities to offer compassionate, honest, timely, and thorough responses to patients who experience an adverse health care incident. This program is designed to benefit patients, their families, clinicians, and health care systems by formalizing a non-adversarial process where there can be open communication about what happened, why it happened, and what can be done to prevent this in the future.

COPIC developed a Guide for the Colorado Candor Act to provide additional information about the Act and address frequently asked questions. The guide also includes a section about "Considerations for Health Care Facilities/Hospitals" that provides useful insight on considerations and best practices when utilizing the Candor process.
Colorado Professional Review Act
Good news! The Colorado Professional Review Act has been reauthorized with all of its protections intact until 2030.

The Colorado Hospital Association, Colorado Medical Society, and COPIC worked together to meet with legislators as well as representatives of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association (CTLA) in an effort to address concerns with the current law. An amendment was offered and adopted which reached the balance of addressing CTLA's concerns without destroying the current protections under the law.

The amendment aims to ensure that documents not created for professional review purposes are not being protected under the professional review privilege merely because they were considered by a professional review committee. The bill, with the amendment: 
  • Recognizes that original source documents containing factual information about a patient not created as part of professional review are not protected under the professional review privilege. 
  • Allows a mechanism where such documents, that are not otherwise privileged or confidential, are identified and can be obtained by subpoena or discovery from the professional review entity if those records are not otherwise available from the original source that created them.  
  • Additionally, it was made clear that the log of all original source documents will describe the nature and source of the original source documents. 

Lastly, the amended bill encourages consumer member participation on professional review committees and will allow rulemaking by the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) to require more robust reporting by the governing boards of professional review entities about the outcomes of their professional review investigations. This would include, for example, where the entity takes no final adverse action on the individual's privileges, but requires additional education or proctoring by the individual.

Save the Date: 2019 Patient Safety & Risk Management Forum
Save the date for the 2019 Forum:  
October 2-4, 2019
Brown Palace Hotel
Denver, Colorado

Facility primary contacts in Colorado will receive registration information in July, via email. Contact Stephanie Heronema at
(720) 858-6129 with questions or for more information.  
NEW! COPIC Legal Navigator™
COPIC Legal Navigator provides direct access to our expert attorneys and legal staff for assistance and information on complex health care topics. Our goal with COPIC Legal Navigator services is to help insureds understand how legal and regulatory elements impact their medical practice and to reduce uncertainty, so they can focus on patient care.

Our team knows these topics from decades of experience in working with medical professionals along with expertise on both state and federal legal requirements. We've done the research so you don't have to spend time and resources trying to figure out the answers. Learn more here.

Utilize the  COPIC Legal Helpline to connect
with a member of our legal team; available from
8am-5pm (MST), Monday through Friday:
800.421.1834 ext. 6030
Legislative Updates
COPIC has long believed that taking an active role in advocating on legislative issues is an important way to maintain stability for access to quality care. That is why we continuously monitor legislation that may impact health care.

Colorado and Nebraska:
The Colorado Legislative session and the Nebraska Unicameral session have adjourned for 2019. Read our full update to learn about bills that were passed and may be of interest to you:
  • Colorado Professional Review Act Sunset (CO)
  • Sunset of the Colorado Medical Practice Act (CO)
  • Open Discussions About Adverse Health Care Incidents (CO)
  • Require Surgical Smoke Detection Policies (CO)
  • Out-of-Network Billing (CO)
  • Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (CO)
  • Extension of Peer Review Protections to Physician Practices (NE)
  • Adjustments to the Bill Requiring Physicians to Educate Patients About the Risks of Opioids When Prescribing (NE)
  • Updates and Modernization of Nebraska's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (NE)
COPIC will continue to monitor specific legislative priorities involving health care and alert you so you can be informed and involved.
NEW: Law Enforcement Interactions----Guidance for Health Care Providers
COPIC recently published a new resource for insureds to reference about interacting with law enforcement personnel. The booklet includes the following topics:
  • 6 key considerations for law enforcement interactions
  • How protected health information under HIPAA applies in these interactions
  • Mandatory reporting for Colorado, Nebraska, and Iowa (available in state-specific versions of the booklet) regarding situations such as sexual assault, child abuse, and drug/alcohol testing with patients
To download an electronic version, visit the Practice Management Resources page on our website, or contact Marguerite Long  at (720) 858-6221 to request a hard copy via mail.
COPIC Value-Added Resources
COPIC Is ANCC Accredited 
COPIC is authorized to present and award
CNE credits for in-person education programs. Contact Laura Dixon at
(720) 858-6126 for more information.

COPIC Peer Review Network (CPRN)

Connects Colorado facilities with providers who can serve as a resource for performing external professional review services. Additional details are available on our website (login with username and password is required to access this information). Contact Charesse Hansen at (720) 858-6127 for login assistance.

Complimentary Human Resource (HR) Hotline 
The HR Hotline connects you with our experts who can help resolve employment-related issues. In addition, we can identify outside resources to handle complex employment law situations. 
(844) 208-4680
Mon-Fri, 8:00am-5:00pm (MST)

Education for Physicians 
and F acilities
We provide in-person and on-demand courses to earn CME credit and COPIC points. See our  2019 Education Catalog for a list of seminars available to schedule at your facility.
COPIC Points Program for Facilities
Earn COPIC Points and reduce your COPIC insurance premium. Facilities insured under our facility policy form are eligible to participate in the COPIC Points Program for Facilities.  Click here for additional information .

To earn COPIC points through a facility assessment, orientation visit, or seminar, please contact us with potential dates and schedule a visit before the calendar fills up.
 The cutoff date to schedule a service for 2019 is November 5th. Additionally, no visits will be scheduled after December 15th. 
Contact
Laura Dixon  at
(720) 858-6126 with questions. 
Regulatory News
  • CMS releases final rule for interoperability program in 2019.
  • Update of the Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System: CMS published Medicare Claims Processing Transmittal 4263 regarding changes and billing instructions for various payment policies implemented in the April 2019 ASC payment system update. 
  • CMS Update to Organ Transplant Guidelines: CMS published State Operations Provider Certification Transmittal 189 regarding a new Appendix X in the SOM outlining the survey process and interpretive guidelines for the Conditions of Participation for organ transplant programs.
News and Tools
Thank you for your commitment to patient safety and improving the practice of medicine. Always feel free to contact COPIC with any questions you may have about Patient Safety and Risk Management services.
  
Sincerely,

Laura Dixon, BS, JD, RN, CPHRM

Director, Patient Safety and Risk Management, Facilities and Operations

Phone: 720-858-6126//Toll Free: 800-421-1834