The TORCH Board of Directors is pleased to announce a major change in the TORCH endorsed Insurance Programs. The Board has appointed HealthSure Insurance Services, Inc., as the Insurance Program Manager, replacing Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services. HealthSure is an insurance brokerage and risk advisory firm that deals solely with health care providers in Texas.
       Barry Couch, the company’s founder and principal, is a well-known figure to many Texas hospitals. Barry is an experience hospital trustee at King’s Daughter’s Hospital in Temple and is a Founder’s Award winning member of the Texas Healthcare Trustees.
       HealthSure will be responsible for program administration and the marketing of insurance programs to rural hospitals. HealthSure will work closely with the staff of TORCH and the Insurance Committee to design programs that are both appropriate and cost-effective for the membership.
       HealthSure is a previously endorsed vendor for professional and general liability self-insurance programs for small hospitals. We welcome Barry and the rest of the HealthSure staff to the TORCH family and we look forward to exciting things to come.

There is still plenty of time to register for the Texas Conference of Rural and Community Hospitals. With 2 weeks to go, demand and support for the conference has never been greater. We sincerely hope that you will be taking part and allowing your trustees and key staff to consider attendance as well. You can achieve significant savings when your register multiple attendees. We have a full exhibit hall with many new vendor sponsors and exhibitors, as well as our consistent vendors from past years.
     The Conference Scheduled and Registration is now available to download. There's not much time. Register today!

The Board of Directors of the RCH Protect Cooperative is pleased to announce changes in both the administration and marketing of the pool. The Board has appointed Innovative Risk Management as the pool administrator and HealthSure Insurance Services to handle marketing, replacing Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services. The administration and marketing of the pool will continue to be coordinated by John F. Boff, the Executive Secretary to the RCH Protect Board, and managed in the TORCH offices. RCH Protect Cooperative is the TORCH endorsed program for workers' compensation coverage for public hospitals in Texas.
      Innovative Risk Management (IRM) will provide complete program administration and underwriting services to the Cooperative. In addition, IRM will continue to perform claims management and loss prevention for pool members. HealthSure will offer sales and marketing services to hospitals in Texas which are eligible for participation in the RCH Protect Cooperative. Both Innovative Risk Management and HealthSure are currently TORCH endorsed vendors.
      To contact IRM regarding services or questions pertaining to your current RCH Protect coverage, call Stuart Stagner at 972-518-1577. To contact HealthSure about obtaining workers' compensation coverage through RCH Protect, call Barry Couch or Mike Rowe at 254-773-9814. As always, please feel free to call the RCH Protect headquarters office at 512-873-0045 for information or to discuss your concerns.

Annually, over 300 political subdivisions (hospital districts, counties, and cities) are eligible to receive a portion of funds distributed from the Tobacco Settlement Permanent Trust Account. Completed Pro Rata Tobacco Settlement Distribution Expenditure Statements for 2006 are due to DSHS very soon.
       Section 102.3(f) of the program rules stipulates the following:
A political subdivision must submit a signed annual expenditure statement to the department, documenting its eligible expenditures for the preceding calendar year:

(A) by delivery, fax, or electronic mail received by the department no later than 5:00 p.m. on March 31 of each year; or

(B) by U.S. Postal Service mail or commercial mail carrier with a postmark reflecting a date no later than midnight on March 31 of each year. Private metered postmarks shall not be acceptable as proof of timely mailing.

If a statement is not received by the department in accordance with the date and methods outlined in paragraph (1) of this subsection, the political subdivision shall not receive a pro rata share of the annual distribution.
       Expenditure statement forms were forwarded to all political subdivisions in December of 2006. Although DSHS has received numerous completed statements, they are still lacking the submission of 154. If you want to know if your hospital or county is listed among the missing, please contact the TORCH office.
       If you have any other questions, you can also contact Peggy Belcher, Manager of the Funds Coordination & Management Branch at the Department of State Health Services. Her phone number is 512.458.7111, ext. 2237.

After years of borrowing space in Bryan and College Station, the Texas A&M Health Science Center’s School of Rural Public Health finally has a home of its own to continue innovative efforts for assisting underserved and rural areas of the state.
      A grand opening will take place April 6th for the School of Rural Public Health’s new three-building, 100,000-square-foot complex, located on the Texas A&M University campus at the corner of Adriance and Raymond Stotzer Parkway.
Accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health, the HSC School of Rural Public Health is the first of its kind in the United States. Founded in 1998 and initially housed in space off-campus, it is committed to improving the health of communities — with an emphasis on rural and underserved populations — through education, research, service, outreach, and creative partnerships.
      Construction on the $21.3 million complex began in September 2004, and personnel began moving into their offices in January. It includes classrooms, research laboratories, administrative and faculty offices, computer labs and centers of excellence.
      With the new complex in place, the HSC School of Rural Public Health can focus on its goals of becoming a national resource on rural public health; expanding faculty ranks to bolster the scope and depth of scholars and educators; expanding degree programs, including development of joint degree programs with other disciplines; creating closer relationships to communities in addressing unmet public health needs and priorities; strengthening international activities and partnerships; and establishing a robust fund-raising capacity.
       TORCH is also an active member of the SRPH’s External Advisory Board. We want to congratulate the staff and faculty of the School of Rural Public Health on this momentous achievement.

The Community Hospital Foundation of Texas is a 501(c)3 organization and an affiliate of TORCH. The Foundation’s mission will be to advance the cause of rural hospitals by seeking funds from public and private organizations that are currently not available to TORCH. This new foundation (CHFTX) has been created out of what used to be called the Texas Rural Hospital Telecommunication Alliance.
       The new organization will be lead by a five-member board made up entirely of rural hospitals administrators. The Board is in the process of determining the Foundation’s priority activities. Along with the name change will come a change of direction and also an expanded focus. Therefore, future endeavors may include, but will no longer be limited to, telecommunications infrastructure.
       The organization will continue to manage the information network that was created by TRHTA. It will hereby be known as “the Alliance”. Today, the Alliance provides a full suite of IT services, including PACS, encrypted email, online transcription and more. Alliance services continue to steadily improve thanks to the partnership that has been created between Larry Krupala at TMSI and Randy Zunke of Hospital Networks Management.
       In the coming months, the Foundation will be seeking out new grant opportunities to develop statewide and/or regional programs that improve rural healthcare delivery. If you know of a funding program that would benefit one or more rural hospitals, please contact a member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors:

James Vanek, CEO of Lavaca Medical Center in Hallettsville – Chairman
Bob Ellzey, CEO of Laird Memorial Hospital in Kilgore – Vice-Chair
Lynn Heller, CEO of Muenster Memorial Hospital – Secretary/Treasurer
Mike Click, CEO of Brownfield Regional Medical Center
Tom Crow, CEO of Atlanta Memorial Hospital

The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy will be holding a national meeting focused on rural health information technology September 21-23, 2006, at the Downtown Marriott in Kansas City, MO. The name of the inaugural meeting will be HIT: A Rural Provider's Roadmap to Quality.
       In an effort to educate rural providers about the benefits of health information technology adoption and its link to quality improvement, this conference will provide an opportunity for rural providers to learn about the basic components of HIT, to focus on the initial steps of strategic planning for HIT investments, to understand how to find appropriate technology to meet individual quality aims, and to share best practices and lessons learned about HIT implementation.
       The meeting seeks to attract rural health care providers, including small physician practices, critical access hospitals, small rural hospitals, and rural health clinics, as well as vendors interested in serving rural health care providers. For additional information please email ORHP@hrsa.gov or call 301/443-0835.
       Also, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently launched a new suite of "learning resources" designed to help healthcare providers adopt health information technologies quickly and effectively. The new resources are at the center's Web site: www.healthit.ahrq.gov .
       The resource center site provides emerging lessons from the field; a knowledge library with links to more than 5,000 health IT information resources; an evaluation toolkit to help those implementing health IT projects; a summary of key topics; plus other resources pointing to current health IT activities, funding opportunities and other information.

Diamond/Heritage Health Services Corporation has announced the formation of the Diamond/Heritage Consulting Practices Group. Robert N. Cuyler, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, will head the operations and development of the consulting division. Diamond/Heritage (formerly Heritage Health Services) is a TORCH/TMSI Endorsed Vendor.
       “We’re excited to add consulting services to Diamond/Heritage’s offerings, following more than a decade of psychiatric management services to TORCH members.Our expanded capabilities allow us to assist member hospitals with a broad spectrum of services related to behavioral health. That focus can range from strategic planning for facility and community needs to refining and problem-solving existing operations,” said Cuyler. “Our areas of expertise now include outpatient and inpatient mental health programs, substance abuse treatment, feasibility studies, operational and marketing analysis, compliance reviews, regulatory affairs, reimbursement systems, telemedicine implementation, and executive coaching.”
       Diamond/Heritage Consulting Practices Group is the consulting services division of Diamond/Heritage Health Services Corporation. Diamond/Heritage, based in Houston, Texas, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Diamond Healthcare Corporation, Richmond, Virginia. For more information about the Diamond/Heritage Consulting Practices Group, contact Robert N. Cuyler, Ph.D. at (800) 295-6660 or via email: rcuyler@diamondhealth.com.