Health Care: Overview
Buchanan's State Government Relations professionals possess the extensive experience that is critical in providing the specialized technical advice, support and assistance needed to navigate one of the most complicated and rapidly changing segments of the economy. On behalf of acute care and specialty health care organizations, health systems, long-term care providers, managed care organizations, integrated delivery systems, physician practices and other health care providers, our State Government Relations Group utilizes its ability to understand health care issues from multiple perspectives and assists clients in developing client-specific strategic plans that identify their legislative and regulatory needs.
With multiple state agencies and the legislature effecting measures that have profound influence on health care providers' delivery of care, day-to-day operations, and reimbursement for services, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney recognizes how vital it is that our clients have a voice in the development of health care policy to assure that their concerns are taken into consideration as these policies are formed and revised.
Our group accomplishes this by analyzing health care legislation as it is introduced and providing clients with up-to-date information on bill activity as it relates to their needs. We arrange meetings with key legislators and regulators, such as the Department of Health and Department of Public Welfare, to create opportunities for clients' perspectives to be shared. We track health care regulations as they are developed or updated and continually seek clients' input. We assist with the creation of opportunities for clients to testify on health care legislation and provide help drafting testimony and preparing for presentations. Finally, and most importantly in many cases, we help to secure state financial assistance for operating needs and capital projects.
Some recent health care-related accomplishments of our State Government Relations Group include:
- Restoring all of the medical assistance hospital payment cuts proposed in the FY 2008-09 budget.
- Increasing funding in the FY 2008-09 budget for obstetric/neonatal services and burn centers.
- Securing new funding in the FY 2008-09 budget to improve the hospital fee-for-service payment system by addressing inadequacies/inequities of Medicaid payments to hospitals.
- Maintaining current funding levels in the FY 2008-09 budget for inpatient and outpatient disproportionate share, community access, and medical education payments for hospitals.
- Preventing an assessment on general acute care hospitals in Allegheny County.
- Achieving an increase in payments to nursing homes.
- Attaining significant increases in funding in the FY 2008-09 budget on behalf of the PA Association of Community Health Centers for primary care access.
- Collaborating with the pharmaceutical and managed care communities in preventing the Department of Public Welfare from "carving out" pharmaceutical services as a covered benefit from the HealthChoices program or the voluntary managed care program.
- Restoring funding for regional cancer institutes through the Department of Health.
- Convincing legislative leaders to increase the debt ceiling for the capital budget to allow for more funding of hospital capital projects.
- Receiving funding commitments for various capital improvement projects on behalf of our clients.
- Attaining increases in state funding for clients in the areas of human services (i.e., mental health and mental retardation), children and youth, public health, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation.