Legislative Advocacy

Impacting Policy in the Healthcare Documentation Domain

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Legislative Advocacy Guide

Significant changes in healthcare delivery arise from policies that are often driven by legislation. Advocacy means to speak up, plead the case of another, or champion a cause. Legislative advocacy, or lobbying, specifically involves influencing public policy through the legislative process. Issues may vary among interest groups but lobbying methods are usually similar.

AHDI’s strategic direction in the area of legislative advocacy involves tracking issues that have the potential to impact patient safety, health information technology standards, allied healthcare workforce development, and health information integrity, security and confidentiality. There are a number of legislative initiatives currently pending, and others that will be drafted, that could change the healthcare documentation domain, and AHDI is committed to tracking and researching the objectives of that legislation and reporting the potential impact to our membership, as well as actively lobbying toward outcomes that are in concert with our strategic objectives, as outlined below.

As health data capture and documentation evolves within the broader healthcare delivery system, it is critical for AHDI to direct its resources toward legislation and policies that will promote:

Patient safety and continuity of care through documentation standards designed to ensure and protect the integrity of patient health data
Consistent, secure and confidential capture of, management of, and access to patient health data
Workforce development in allied health that will ensure resource longevity in healthcare documentation
Establishment of a national health technology infrastructure to address patient safety, continuity of care, and healthcare delivery costs.

AHDI has established the Legislative Issues Group to advance these objectives. The Legislative Issues Group works to educate AHDI members, industry allies and legislators about legislative issues pertinent to the profession; to train members to stay informed about public policy and to become involved in the legislative process through local, state/regional, and national lobbying efforts; and to advocate policy issues to the industry.

Legislative Issues Group Vision, Mission and Goals

Legislative Issues Group Vision: To build a collective voice across the nation and advocate for our professional stake in accurate patient documentation and quality patient healthcare.

Legislative Issues Group Mission: Educating medical transcriptionists, industry allies, policy-makers, and the public about legislation that will impact the profession.

Legislative Issues Group Goal: Impact legislative decisions affecting the healthcare documentation sector and promote efficient, accurate, relevant and secure patient health data in the electronic health data environment.

Legislative Issues Group Objectives

Participate in AHDI/MTIA 2008 Advocacy Summit
Articulate work force development and documentation standard talking points
Identify legislative items to support and/or track
Follow through with legislative directives from the AHDI House of Delegates
Establish State Lobby Day(s) across the nation now and in the future
Provide tools for MTs to develop their legislative skills and advocate for the healthcare documentation sector
Build alliances with allied health professional associations (e.g., AHIMA, MTIA, AMA) to deliver a consistent message that reflects healthcare documentation priorities
Provide communication of legislative issues to our membership

Meet the Legislative Issues Group Team

Legislative Issues Group Chairperson: Karen Fox, CMT (karen.fox@foxtx.net)

Legislative Issues Group Chair-Elect:

Legislative Issues Group Partnering Program: Jacque Taylor, CMT, FAAMT (taylor.jacque@gmail.com)

Legislative Issues Group Staff Liaison: Gigi DeLuca, RMT, FAAMT (gdeluca@ahdionline.org)

Advocacy Topics

Role of MTs in Ensuring Health Data Quality
Building a Credentialed Workforce
Workforce Development in Healthcare Documentation and Allied Health
Documentation Exchange
Standardized Vocabulary and Data Templates
Clinical Documentation Architecture for Common Document Types (CDA4CDT)

Pending Legislation

Allied Health Reinvestment Act (S. 473)/Allied Health Professions Reinvestment Act of 2005 (H.R.215)
This legislation will encourage individuals to seek and complete high quality allied health education and training by providing additional funding for their studies. This funding will help provide the United States healthcare industry with a supply of allied health professionals to support the nation's health care system in this decade and beyond.

The Allied Health Reinvestment Act was re-introduced in the 1st Session of the 109th Congress by Congressmen Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and Ted Strickland (D OH), and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA). A coalition of approximately 30 organizations is working to have this legislation passed.

Wired for Health Care Quality Act (S.1418/H.R.4642)
Enhances the adoption of a nationwide interoperable health information technology system and improves the quality and reduces the costs of health care in the United States.

Legislative Events for 2008

AHDI/MTIA Advocacy Summit: AHDI professionals, MTIA members, large and small MTSOs and MTs across the nation advocate for legislative issues relevant to our profession.

AHDI State Lobby Day(s) The goal of AHDI State Lobby Day(s) is to activate the state/regional/local components to advocate topics to their state-level legislators relevant to our profession and pertinent to their own particular state and present them to their state's legislators on an ongoing basis.

Advocacy Tools

Legislative Training Manual

Allied Health Reinvestment Act (S. 473)/Allied Health Professions Reinvestment Act of 2005 (H.R.215)

Wired for Health Care Quality Act (S.1418/H.R.4642)

AHDI/MTIA Work force Development/Document Exchange Talking Points 2008 (file pending)

AHDI/MTIA White Paper 2006

Medical Transcription Priority Issues and Facts

MTIA/AHDI Apprenticeability Press Release

Have You Read Your Medical Record Campaign

Letter-Writing Campaign

In addition to our lobbying events, AHDI encourages members and component leaders, as well as all practitioners in the industry, to adopt a proactive commitment to advocacy through letter writing and e-mail communication. Legislative officials look to their constituents to determine public sentiment and industry consensus on key issues, and it is important that they hear from you about the issues impacting healthcare documentation today. As in all areas of political decision-making, volume is critical, and to gain widespread attention to our issues, all medical transcriptionists need to direct their letters and e-mails to their own local, state, and national legislators. It will take a grass-roots effort involving all members of the industry to drive legislative policy that will result in favorable outcomes for patients, healthcare documentation, and medical transcriptionists.

Sample letter re: CAA funding for military spouses (use Diana Gish sample letter to Senator McCain)

Model Letter

Letter to John Legg