NORTH ADAMS — The new North Adams Regional Hospital has been serving patients since March, but it is still waiting on a vital designation that would free up federal Medicare and Medicaid money.
Berkshire Health Systems is currently working on obtaining a “critical access hospital” designation after an initial survey from the state Department of Public Health, on behalf of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in March.
Apart from the widely recognized need to get a hospital back in North Adams after NARH abruptly closed in 2014, the main reason Berkshire Health Systems was able to open the facility was a change in federal guidelines that would allow for NARH to become a critical access hospital.
North Adams Regional Hospital has reopened for inpatient care, exactly a decade after it abruptly closed
The designation triggers increased cost-based reimbursement for provided services, which Berkshire Health Systems CEO Darlene Rodowicz has said would prevent a reopened North Adams Regional Hospital from operating at a loss. Before the federal change, which was finalized last year, a hospital with inpatient care in the city was not viewed as financially viable.
A long, bureaucratic process to secure state and federal approvals that began in earnest last summer is almost complete. The health system has cleared all the hurdles necessary to serve; though it cannot pay for patients through the Medicare and Medicaid refund that comes with being a critical access hospital until DPH conducts an unannounced survey and deems that the hospital satisfies the requirements.
After the joyous opening of the hospital in March, DPH conducted a survey, which focused on several areas, “including the state of the facility or what’s called Environment of Care (such as plant operations like fire safety and prevention, preventative maintenance and emergency preparedness), staffing levels and staff education, patient safety, policies and procedures for services and overall operations, staff and provider credentialing and patient care planning,” according to BHS spokesperson Michael Leary.
North Adams Regional Hospital is poised to open this month. The public just got a glimpse of the renovated inpatient unit
“As is common with any such survey, the survey team reports back to the hospital with recommendations for improvement, which happened after the first survey,” Leary continued in an email. “North Adams Regional has addressed the recommendations provided by CMS and DPH for improvements raised during the initial survey.”
The health system is waiting for DPH to carry out another survey and make a final decision on becoming a critical access hospital. There is no deadline on when that decision must be made.
During the wait, NARH continues to provide inpatient observation and outpatient services “through the prospective payment system and other available reimbursement methodologies,” Leary said.
Since the opening, Leary said BHS has noticed people are happy to have a hospital back. He noted that NARH is starting to build new relationships with community organizations.
“Though the journey to reduce health disparities is a long one, we are seeing that our early efforts to increase access and to address social determinants of health are making an impact,” Leary said. “NARH staff are doing an excellent job meeting the high standards for quality of care.”
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