PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center is actively remedying deficiencies identified by state Department of Health surveyors that, if not corrected, could cut off Medicare billing, hospital officials said Tuesday.
“We’re not going to close our doors,” said Bobby Stone, OMC’s director of marketing and communications. “We’re committed to working through this.”
OMC received a termination notice on June 30 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stating that, based on a DOH surveyor visit on June 10-12, it was not in compliance with patient rights and nursing services that are conditions for its participation in the program.
According to the notice, Medicare would not pay for services for patients after Aug. 15; for inpatients admitted before Aug. 15, payments for services would continue for no more than 30 days on or after that date.
The notice said termination could only be avoided by sending the DOH a plan of correction outlining how it would correct the violations within 10 days, which the hospital accomplished, Stone said.
The DOH carries out the Medicare certification process for the CMS.
The correction outlined each of the deficiencies noted by DOH surveyors, a plan for improving the practices that led to the deficiency, procedures for implementing the plan of correction, a completion date for each of the deficiencies, and the title of the person responsible for implementing the plan.
“DOH is here this week to follow up on the plan of corrective action we submitted, and it will send its report to CMS,” Stone said.
CMS will make a determination on next steps based on the DOH survey.
CMS is required to notify hospitals and the public of Medicare terminations before they take effect. As of Tuesday, OMC did not appear among the list of facility terminations on the CMS website.
This was not OMC’s first brush with CMS noncompliance this year.
In February, the DOH conducted its first survey of OMC since 2018. Surveyors identified regulatory deficiencies, OMC submitted a plan of correction, and a DOH revisit was scheduled for April 25.
According to a May 12 termination notice from CMS to OMC, its Medicare agreement would be terminated on June 5 because DOH surveyors found the hospital was still not in compliance during the revisit.
OMC again submitted a plan of correction to address new and repeat deficiencies in the DOH survey.
In their June revisit, DOH surveyors once more identified new and repeat deficiencies that rendered OMC out of compliance and which promoted CMS to issue the Aug. 15 termination date.
“Olympic Medical Center is in ongoing communication with the Washington State Department of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in response to patient care issues brought to light earlier this year,” OMC CEO Darryl Wolfe said in a statement. “We are confident that our recent corrective actions will bring us back into full compliance.
“It is disappointing that rumors are circulating regarding the future of our health system. There is no secret agenda we are trying to hide from our patients or community members.”
Wolfe resigned his position last week, and the OMC board of directors on Friday hired WittKieffer to oversee a process to hire an interim CEO.
Wolfe agreed to stay in his role until the interim CEO is hired.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
