Volume 10, Issue 20 September 13, 2002
Get on the Phone (or the web) to Help Health Care
Congress is back for what will be a busy fall even as legislators try to wrap things up quickly before the coming elections.New broadcast and print ads by the Coalition to Protect America’s Health Care – of which AHA and the hospital are a member – are publicizing a toll-free number we can use to call senators and push for hospital payment improvements. (See the ads at www.protecthealthcare.org.).
The American Hospital Association is calling on all of us to tell congress to protect health care.
Senator Maria Cantwell, left, and Senator Patty Murray, right, are Democrats from Washington State.
You can help by calling 1-866-456-CARE. This will connect you to the Capitol switchboard. Ask for Senator Murray and Senator Cantwell. Tell them to pass legislation that includes and improves provisions in the Medicare bill that the House of Representatives has already passed. Tell them to get it done by October 1st.
Readers of our electronic version can click on the Senate links above to send an email message to the two Senators. (Now isn't this a lot more fun than the old way?)
The house bill (HB 4954) includes $14.3 billion dollars in payment improvements to help hospitals and physicians continue to serve Medicare and other low income patients.
Submitted by Tony Mobley, AHA
In
This Corner by
Jon D. Smiley, C.E.O.
What causes you to want to return to a business again and again?
I suspect that it often comes down to how you are treated as a customer. If you know that a store, restaurant, car dealer, or hospital will respect your time and financial investment in coming into the business, then you are likely to be a continued customer.
While many of us like to think of health care as being different in a different category, I would like to take just a minute to urge you to think again. We are in competition to provide a vital (and often very expensive) commodity. I recently read a commentary by a reporter who was shocked at the total cost of his surgery bill. While he did not complain about the care he received – he did seem to believe that the hospital and the doctors who cared for him were not aware of how much money these services costs.
He said, and I agree, that reform needs to occur in how health care is delivered in this country.
While everyone continues to debate how that reform will be handled, we need to continue to treat every patient as a valued customer. We need to think of ourselves as medical professionals, but also as business people who have an obligation to provide our valued customers with a reason to return here next time.
Editor's Note: Unless otherwise indicated, you can click on any photo with a blue border to see a larger version of the photo.