The following issue areas are current legislative priorities for the PAMEAS Public Policy department:
- Healthcare reform. Monitor and engage on proposals being offered for broad health system reform that would impact patients, providers, and hospitals. Support equitable solutions with proper reimbursement aimed at reducing costs and improving quality to provide greater value in the delivery of healthcare.
- e.g., Increasing the utilization of Transradial vascular access during interventional procedures to reduce bleeding complications, reduce cost of interventional procedures, and increase patient safety and satisfaction.
- Other reform topics of immediate priority to PAMEAS include:
- Simple tax credit rules and flexibility
- "Doughnut hole" money, coverage for the uninsured
- Expanding nurses' responsibilities
- Guidance on high-risk pools
- Insurance spending requirements, benefits design
- Insurance exchanges; Medicaid payment rates
- Medicare spending board; physician payment cuts
- Increasing efficiency and enhancing value in healthcare delivery. Support sensible policies, such as gainsharing, which appropriately align incentives to enhance efficiency and improve quality in healthcare delivery. Work closely with hospital industry allies to ensure that proposals such as value-based purchasing and other efforts intended to improve quality through payment reform are understood in terms of the impact they will have on hospitals’ ability to provide care.
- Medicare/Medicaid payment issues. Promote appropriate Medicare and Medicaid program reimbursement policies.
- Patient safety. Support patient safety initiatives from a product perspective. Promote efforts to create a non-punitive environment that encourages medical event reporting. Assure that applicable legislation provides for an educational-based system of voluntary reporting of medical errors. Support federal funding for patient safety technology.
- Healthcare liability reform. Advocate for passage of sensible federal reform of the medical liability system.
- Reduction of regulatory burdens. Support initiatives aimed at reducing burdensome government regulations on hospitals and the medical industry.
- Healthcare IT. Promote federal policies to encourage development of, and the removal of barriers to, healthcare information technology, including electronic health records.
- Technological innovation. Promote laws and regulations to encourage new and innovative technology balanced with the needs and interests of patients and healthcare delivery providers and organizations.
- Healthcare work force shortage. Promote federal policies and legislation designed to address the shortage of physicians, nurses, and other healthcare personnel. Advocate for continued funding of the programs of the Nurse Reinvestment Act.
- Coverage for the uninsured. Promote initiatives to address the issue of the uninsured through increased access to coverage, with appropriate reimbursement for providers.
- Disaster readiness / bioterrorism. Promote federal policies and appropriate reimbursement designed to assist hospitals in their efforts to prepare and respond to large-scale biological, chemical, or nuclear attacks.
- Confidentiality of medical information. Monitor and advocate as appropriate on challenges to medical privacy rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Engage in support of reasonable requirements for healthcare providers in terms of securing personal health information.