Biases impact care of opioid-dependent patients 2 Crafting CHA’s vision statement 3 Remembering Sr. Juliana Casey, IHM 7 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
JANUARY 2023
VOLUME 39, NUMBER 1
Medicaid ‘unwinding’ threatens chaos for insured and care providers By LISA EISENHAUER
With the end of a congressional provision that had extended Medicaid coverage during the COVID-19 public health emergency, states are set to begin on April 1 what some Catholic health care leaders and Medicaid experts expect to be a chaotic and cumbersome process to redetermine the
90.6
MILLION
Total Medicaid/ CHIP enrollment as of August
eligibility of the more than 90 million people currently enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program. A sweeping budget measure passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in the final days of 2022 ended the continuous Medicaid coverage requirement for states that had been in effect since March 2020. It allows the recertification of eligi-
19
MILLION
MORE THAN 29.6% Medicaid enrollment increase from February 2020*
bility — a process dubbed the Medicaid unwinding — to start April 1. The end result of the unwinding will be that 5.3 million to 14.2 million people will lose their coverage, according to Kaiser Family Foundation estimates. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation within the Department of Health and Human Services pre-
312,000 ABOUT 4.6%
CHIP enrollment increase from February 2020
dicts about half of those disenrollments will be of people who are eligible for coverage but stymied in providing proof by procedural hurdles, such as not being able to get through to the appropriate state agency because of overwhelmed phone lines. Mike Slubowski, president and chief executive of Trinity Health, says the Continued on 4
5.3 MILLION — 14.2 MILLION Estimate of how many will lose coverage during the unwinding
6.8
MILLION
Estimate of how many could lose coverage despite remaining eligible
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation *Reflects changes in the economy, adoption of Medicaid expansion by some states and continuous coverage provision
St. Luke’s turns cameras on health care inequities in Houston By LISA EISENHAUER
Rosemary Laffey does some baking. She and her fellow residents of memory care small houses at Jennings at Notre Dame Village in Chardon, Ohio, participate in household tasks that give them satisfaction.
A video series being produced by St. Luke’s Health is spotlighting the paradox faced by people who live near the Texas Medical Center in Houston but are unable to access most of its world-class services because they are uninsured or underinsured. St. Luke’s Health, based in Houston, is part of CommonSpirit Health. St. Luke’s and the Baylor College of Medicine are joint owners of Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, an academic and research hospital that is part of the 1,345-acre Texas Medical Center complex. The complex calls itself “the largest medical city in the world.” The complex is a partnership of several member institutions, including hospitals, health systems, public health agencies, colleges and hospices. Facilities on the Continued on 5
The eight-part “ExamiNATION” series being produced by St. Luke’s Health calls attention to the fact that many people living in and around Houston are unable to access most of the city’s world-class medical services because they lack insurance.
By JULIE MINDA
By JULIE MINDA
Michelle Feller concedes that people who are accustomed to how things are usually done in memory care facilities may find the approaches used in the newest unit at ArchCare at Ferncliff Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center to be rather unorthodox. With some guidance, residents of the Center for Advanced Memory Care that Ferncliff opened in January 2022 plan their own recreation calendar, prepare the dining room for mealtimes, maintain Ferncliff gardens and greet visitors, among countless other activities, says Feller. She is assistant Continued on 8
In mid-February CHA will launch an online Ministry Identity Assessment platform that will streamline some of the processes of conducting a comprehensive evaluation of how well ministry systems and facilities manifest the Catholic health mission. Ministry leaders will be able to use the tool to organize teams to assess how effectively their organizations are living out each of seven areas of responsibility, as set out in the core commitments of Catholic health care. The online tool guides the teams through the assessments, the analysis of the results and the development of performance improvement action plans based on the findings. Dennis Gonzales, CHA senior director of mission innovation and integration, says by participating in the thorough, stepby-step self-assessment process, Catholic health systems and facilities will identify
strengths and reasons to celebrate as well as areas for growth and continuous quality improvement. The tool offers a blueprint for such improvements and a way of keeping track of progress toward those goals. Gonzales says the tool will help the ministry to build a repository of best practices from across Catholic health care to serve as inspiration for ministry Gonzales organizations looking to expand their work. The portal incorporates an updated version of the comprehensive Ministry Identity Assessment tool that CHA first made available to its representative members in 2019. Developed by a task force of mission and ethics experts convened by CHA, the assessment tool is in line with Gospel and theological values and foundational elements of Catholic social teaching. Continued on 6
Eric Vandeville/Abaca/Sipa USA/via AP Images
CHA to launch online platform for Ministry memory care facilities apply conducting ministry identity assessments Montessori principles to increase resident engagement
Pope Benedict remembered as humble theologian Leaders in the Catholic Church and its health care ministry say Pope Benedict was a towering intellect with a strong allegiance to the church’s mission to care for the sick. Obituary on PAGE 7