MISCELANEOUS TRIVIA - FOR WONKS ONLY

Pandemic Flu Preparedness
The state Legislature enacted an economic stimulus bill and a supplemental budget bill in June that will benefit hospitals and businesses in the Longwood Medical area and will help bolster the state’s health care workforce by training young people in health care careers. The $36.5 Million Pandemic Flu Preparedness bill is one provision of the bill. The bulk of the spending in the bill is devoted to purchasing ventilators, beds, vaccine and other supplies to enhance hospital surge capacity. This spending is new money that will be spent by DPH. Among the bill’s other features:

• $750,000 for the re-establishment of the Office of Local Health Services in DPH to provide technical support for local boards of health .
• $150,000 for the New England INDEX (information and referral coalition) for emergency preparedness for people with disabilities.
• $1,000,000 for home health organizations for purchasing protective equipment for staff
• $140,000 for a Harvard School of Public Health study on the state's preparedness.
• Tightens up language covering legal protection, also known as indemnity, for emergency first responders.
• The bill also updates and modernizes the public health laws concerning quarantine, isolation and the removal of infected or dangerous material. For example, one of the updated public health laws provides that if an individual who is a wage earner is subject to isolation or quarantine, they are entitled to receive unemployment benefits for the time they are quarantined. Current law, last amended in the 1940s, does not provide for any compensation while a person is quarantined.

City May Require Disparities Data
The Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) has proposed regulations that would require hospitals and community health centers in the City of Boston to collect and report patient information related to race, ethnicity, language spoken and level of education. The regulation would also require hospitals and community health centers to develop and implement initiatives aimed at reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health care.

If enacted, hospitals would have until October 29, 2006, to submit a plan for compliance with the regulation and have until July 1, 2007, to fully comply with the regulation. Separately, the state's Division of Health Care Finance Policy has proposed changes to its Hospital Case Mix and Charge Data regulations that would expand the data currently collected related to race and ethnicity.

06/06