Aug. 12-18: Healthcare, coupled with the social assistance industry, has the highest rate of work-related injuries and illness in the nation—582,800 cases in 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s roughly 154,000 more than the manufacturing sector. So, no time like the present to focus on creating a safer workplace. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has named this Safe & Sound Week. The agency will recognize and promote “successes of workplace safety and health programs and offer information and ideas on how to keep America’s workers safe.”
Aug. 12: You have until midnight Eastern Daylight Time to tell the CMS how it can continue to ease your regulatory headache. As part of the Trump administration’s Reducing Administrative Burden to Put Patients over Paperwork initiative, the CMS wants to hear from stakeholders on a few specific items: modifying or streamlining reporting and documentation requirements; aligning Medicare, Medicaid and other payer coding; addressing issues that are overly burdensome for rural providers; and simplifying beneficiary enrollment.
Aug. 15: The Protecting Health Coverage in Louisiana Task Force holds a public meeting. Created in May by Gov. John Bel Edwards, the task force is charged with figuring out how to protect coverage for people with pre-existing conditions should the Affordable Care Act be struck down in litigation making its way through federal courts. The state’s attorney general, Jeff Landry, is part of the lawsuit, along with several other Republican attorneys general, challenging the ACA’s constitutionality.
