Alaska Native Medical Center submits plan to reverse federal sanction

The Alaska Native Medical Center’s operators have submitted a plan for fixing governance issues that landed the hospital in a tenuous situation with federal regulators, who this month revoked the hospital’s “deemed status” — a serious sanction that could render the state’s largest tribal hospital unable to participate in Medicare.

On July 12, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services informed the Alaska Native Medical Center that, based on a June inspection, it was not in compliance with the requirements to participate in Medicare and was having its “deemed status” revoked, according to a letter sent by the agency to hospital leaders.

The hospital remains open and operating as usual, officials said.

The Alaska Native Medical Center has until October to fix the issues or risk losing its ability to participate in Medicare — a major funding source for hospitals. The letter identified the two areas where the hospital was out of compliance as “Governing Body” and “Emergency Services.”

The inspection itself will not be made publicly available until August, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said.

But hospital management says the issues that put the hospital out of compliance with regulators have to do with the unique joint operating management structure of the Alaska Native Medical Center. The 172-bed Alaska Native Medical Center is jointly operated by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and the Southcentral Foundation.

The hospital leaders gave the example of the emergency room, where some employees on the acute side are employees of ANTHC and others, in non-acute care, are employees of the Southcentral Foundation. The federal regulators cited rules about having a hospital chain of command that require “one leader of all medical staff and one hospital administrator who reports to hospital governance,” the ANTHC and Southcentral Foundation leaders said.

The regulator findings do not directly involve patient care or safety, ANTHC and the Southcentral Foundation said in a joint statement. There were no “immediate jeopardy” findings indicating an urgent safety risk.

That’s in contrast to other Alaska medical facilities recent brushes with federal regulators. Alaska Psychiatric Institute, North Star Behavioral Health System and Providence Extended Care have all been cited by federal investigators for issues related to patient care and safety, ranging from bed sores to escapes and assaults.

The Alaska Native Medical Center hospital system submitted its plans to correct the issue to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on July 20. Hospital leaders did not share a copy with the Daily News. But hospital leaders say they “expect the plan of correction submitted to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to resolve governance concerns and ensure the 172-bed hospital will retain its deemed status.”