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Legislation and Advocacy
In collaboration with the National Rural Health Association, VRHA works with elected officials at the local, state and federal levels to help them understand how the decisions they make affect the quality of health care provided in rural Virginia.
Advocacy for rural health is very important - you are the voice for your community and it is your efforts that can assist in improving their health. Whether you realize it or not, every day rural health care is impacted by laws and regulations made in Richmond and Washington, DC. It is essential that you play a role in this process so that your views are taken into account through advocacy efforts.
Advocacy is simple; it is an action taken by individuals, groups, or organizations to defend, support, protect, or enhance policies that they consider important. Individuals advocate all the time. Every time you speak with your organization's board of directors about a project in your facility or talk with your neighbors about where to take their daughter for proper treatment, you are advocating for health care.
VRHA encourages you to take your local advocacy effort, and add your voice to the state and national level since so many policies are decided in Richmond and Washington, DC. This does not need to be a formal, planned event. It is and can be the informal communication of an idea - even at the federal level. In doing so, your voice will be heard and your efforts will not go unnoticed.
Policymakers may seem to just be focused on issues on Capitol Hill, but they are not. Lawmakers want to do what is right for your community and for rural health. They want to understand your concerns and want to provide policies that satisfy your passions. They want to hear about why you think a policy change is needed or why a certain law has had a negative impact on your community. They just need direction from their constituents. Grassroots advocacy can provide such a path and its importance cannot be overstated.
The Virginia Rural Health Association Board of Directors has approved a list of Policy Priorities. The priorities are a list of
items VRHA feels are important for the improvement of the quality of health care provided in rural Virginia. The items are divided into the categories of Recruitment and Retention, Access to Health Care and Public Health/Prevention.
Click here to download the Policy Priorities.
If you would like to suggest any changes, additions or deletions to the priorities, please contact VRHA Executive Director Beth O'Connor and your suggestions will be forwarded to the Legislative Committee.
Sign
up for Virginia's Legislative Tracking Service
Virginia's Legislative Tracking Service:In
partnership with the General Assembly's Division of Legislative
Automated Systems,
DLAS, the Virginia Information Providers Network,
VIPNet, is offering a free legislative tracking service. The new
service allows users to track up to 5 bills in their profile. The
new legislative tracking service is based on the popular Lobbyist-In-A-Box
service which has been widely used by professional lobbyists and
public entities for several years. With this Legislative Tracking Service, users can:
* Create their own profile that organizes bills by subject or topical area by using search parameters (keywords, patrons, committees, subject, or code sections) that return a list from which you may select bills to add to your profiles.
*Elect to receive email notification when new bills are offered or changed.
*Utilize reporting features including a comma-delimited format and a composite view or capsule summary of their profile that shows each bill's common title, patron(s), committee assignment, and most recent action.
Virginia
Quality Healthcare Network Site
Virginia
Quality Healthcare Network: Tracks all health-related bills.
Voices
for Virginia's Children Site
Voices for Virginia's Children:In addition to tracking
legislation related to children, Voices for Virginia's Children provides
links
to all Virginia legislation, contact information for legislators,
and a number of easy ways to submit letters to media and legislators
online.
Joint
Commission on Health Care Site
The Joint Commission on Health Care (JCHC):A legislative
commission created by the 1992 General Assembly. The purpose of the
Joint Commission
is to study, report and make recommendations on all areas of health
care provision, regulation, insurance, liability, licensing, and delivery
of services. The Joint Commission works to ensure that the greatest
number of Virginians receives quality, cost-effective health care services.
Richmond Sunlight
Richmond Sunlight is a website that aggregates information about the General Assembly, the lawmaking body that governs the state of Virginia. Richmond Sunlight is an independent, volunteer-run website that not affiliated with the Virginia General Assembly or the state government.
The Problem Health reform that expands health care coverage is necessary and laudable - in fact, rural Americans lack insurance at a higher rate than their urban counterparts - but there is a greater crisis in rural America: access to health care. Coverage does not equate to access.
- Over 50 million Americans live in areas where there are too few providers to meet their basic primary care needs.
- Yet these rural patients face the most daunting of health care challenges: per capita, rural populations are older, poorer and sicker.
The Rationale Change must come to rural America, too.
- For any health reform to be a success, the health care crisis in rural America must first be resolved - for it does not matter if you have health insurance coverage if you do not have access to a physician or other health provider.
- Legislation that finally addresses the long-standing inequities and disparities in rural America must be included as part of Federal health care reform.
The Solution To resolve the health care crisis, the rural health care safety net must be prevented from crumbling. A simple, yet multi-faceted solution to the complex problem of delivering health care in rural America is needed. Three reforms are crucial:
- The workforce shortage crisis must be abated;
- Equity in reimbursement must occur;
- Health disparities must be eliminated and vulnerable populations must be protected; disparities in infrastructure must be corrected.
Updated information about the House Tri-Committee Bill: HR 3200 -
General Concerns about HR3200
Suggestions for the Finance Committee
Suggestions for the Energy & Commerce Committee
The National Rural Health Association has developed Legislative Solutions for Rural America. VRHA encourages you to contact your elected officials and send a strong message about the need for rural health care reform. Please refer to the following fact sheets for more information about specific issues:
Allow Critical Access Hospitals
Flexibility in their Bed Counts
Improving the Physician Workforce
Shortage Crisis in Rural America
Additionally - you can join the NRHA Grassroots team and participate in weekly strategy calls, receive email updates as reform progresses and contact your elected officials to help shape this important legislation. To join, send a blank email to:
join-grassroots@lists.wisc.edu; you will then receive an email with activation information. Feel free to share this group with others who might be interested in getting involved.
