Communication: July 10, 2020
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As part of Southwestern Health’s commitment to providing you resources to meet the increased needs of your patients and to keep our community healthy, please read this information and share it with your colleagues and staff. We will continue to produce updates with the latest information and tools. Thank you for all you are doing to meet the challenges of COVID-19.
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UnitedHealthcare Post-Acute Authorization Update
UnitedHealthcare has updated their current rules for prior-authorizations, effective June 26, 2020 until July 24, 2020. Read the announcement
here.
Other payors and prior-authorizations have not yet sent an update, but as soon as our team knows, we will communicate this to our partners.
*Please note- these updates will only apply to patients discharging from a hospital and does NOT apply to Out-of-Network Facilities.*
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Blood Type May Determine Effects of COVID-19
Dr. Jason Fish,
SWHR’s Chief Medical Officer, recently addressed a number of questions about COVID-19. In early April a biotechnology company, 23 and Me, announced plans to conduct a study utilizing its large bank of genetic data from customers who had consented to their information being used for research purposes. The study aims to identify genetic variants in an individual’s genome that may be associated with differences in COVID-19 severity.
In percentages, for the entire population, individuals with blood group Type O were 9-18% less likely to test positive when compared to other groups. “Exposed” individuals with blood group Type O were 13-26% less likely to test positive.
While this may make people with Type O blood feel better about their risk, the reality is that everyone is at risk for getting COVID-19 and a necessity to practice social distancing, and wear face masks, whenever possible.
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Skilled Nursing Facilities Accepting COVID-19 Patients
Below is a list of current quality skilled nursing facilities that are accepting new positive patients.
*Please note, this list is subject to change*
Presbyterian Village North
Dallas 214-355-9643
Villages of Lake Highlands
Dallas 214-342-7105
Windsor Gardens
Lancaster 972-228-8029
Wellington Oaks
Fort Worth 940-297-1360
Mansfield Nursing & Rehab
Mansfield 940-297-1367
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Testing Barriers Common for Many Facilities
Many of our providers have indicated numerous issues related to COVID-19 testing. Those include the inability to obtain fast turn-around on testing results following a facility-wide mass testing, not being able to get the desired number of negative tests performed by the hospitals prior to patient’s discharge, and false-positive outcomes. As a result of the feedback, our team has provided some recommendations for resolving these issues.
Faster turnaround for mass testing.
Private labs have shown faster turnaround. Consider setting up a recurring testing schedule with some of the following labs:
Omnicare CVS, Quest Labs, LabCorp, and ARCpoint Labs. We have heard that some of these labs, like Omnicare CVS, will come to your facility in-person for testing, so make sure to discuss with the individual labs about their process.
The best way to set up a schedule with these labs is to contact your
independent pharmacy consultant to facilitate, rather than contacting the labs directly to set appointments.
COVID-19 test requirements prior to hospital discharge to SNFs.
Many facilities are requiring negative tests from hospitals 72 hours prior to a patient’s discharge. Some THR hospitals have mentioned that they are unable to do this because they want to save their tests for new admissions. While we cannot guarantee a specific outcome from the hospitals regarding this issue, Michael Beaty, our Post-Acute Network Engagement Specialist, and Jeff Lewis, VP of Utilization Management Operational Integration, will reach out to our parent hospitals for more clarification and support.
Our team is also working on providing the hospital CTMs with a tip-sheet for each level of post-acute care detailing the procedures our partner facilities need to take in order to receive patients from the acute setting.
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CDC Guidelines for Testing
The CDC guidelines for testing are continuously being updated. In order to help resolve some of the testing barriers, please read the
latest from the CDC as it relates to testing for discharging COVID-19 patients.
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SWHR Patient-Facing COVID-19 Guides
SWHR has put together patient-facing guides to address various information regarding COVID-19. In previous newsletters, we were able to share our patient guide for identifying adverse heart symptoms. We saw a troubling decline in inpatient admittance to the hospitals for heart-related conditions. We have included two flyers with encouragement to share with our patients and your staff for this edition. The first flyer relays patient advice for high risk of COVID-19 populations. The second flyer offers tips on when to call into a medical office, rather than arriving as a walk-in.
Patient-Facing COVID-19 Guides
Advice for people at high risk for COVID-19
English
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UTSW COVID-19 Forecasting for the DFW Region
Last week, UT Southwestern Medical Center released a PowerPoint Presentation with slides illustrating a model of how COVID-19 is spreading across the DFW region based on real patient data they have received from Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant counties. Information presented in the slides is regarding data as of June 19-26, 2020.
View the UTSW COVID-19 Forecasting for DFW presentation.
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Alert: Fake Coronavirus Map Delivers Malware
SWHR has been monitoring websites circulating that look like a live map for COVID-19 Global Cases by Johns Hopkins University, but they are proving to be spreading malware. As the need to monitor the latest coronavirus updates continues, we will likely be seeing an increase in corona malware and corona malware variants well into the foreseeable future, as more apps and technologies are created to monitor it.
For the official Johns Hopkins University live map, please visit their
website.
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COVID-19 Patient Recovery Stories
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Hearing your positive patient and staff stories helps reinforce the important work you do. If you have a story, we'd love to hear from you. Please remember to protect patient privacy with your contribution.
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Your feedback matters! Please let us know how we can help provide the most pertinent and helpful information for your business and your patients by clicking the button below.
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To ensure you continue to receive these communications to your inbox, rather than spam or junk folders, please add swhrnews@southwesternhealth.org to your email contacts. For additional information contact:
Michelle Mirkovic, Manager of Home Health Utilization Management and Effectiveness
Interim
Post-acute Engagement Specialist
214-566-2451 | Michelle.mirkovic@southwesternhealth.org
Mike Beaty, Network Engagement Specialist
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