Just three full weeks into the state’s 90-day legislative session, it’s clear that health and health care are top of mind.
Your MHA team is hard at work on your behalf, advocating for policies and programs that ensure access to care, strengthen our hospital workforce, and protect Maryland’s liability climate.
We are using our collective voice in Annapolis with one singular goal: Our mission of care.
This year, we are seeking several state investments in health and health care, including additional funds for loan repayment for health care professionals and $2 million for a workplace violence prevention campaign to support our workforce.
We will continue to advocate for these priorities throughout the budget process.
Together, the field supports consolidating the Certified Nursing Assistant and Geriatric Nursing Assistant designations and adopting the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Compact, as well as investing in programs that support career pathways.
These are significant commitments to help grow and retain our health care workforce.
The legislature also is focused on our work to improve hospital throughput and emergency department length of stay. We’ve briefed committees in the House and Senate on this work, and we’re glad to see legislators backing bills—including our priority legislation aimed at improving the guardianship process to facilitate faster discharge decisions—that we believe will help ease ED crowding. We look forward to finalizing a report that will go to the legislature with recommendations from members of the General Assembly Hospital Throughput Work Group, which finalized its work in January.
Together, we also are on the defense this session on several bills that, if passed, would negatively impact health and health care in our state. We are working to defend against policies that would harm our workforce—including mandatory staffing ratios—and advocating to maintain caps on non-economic damages.
All of our efforts support your mission of care for all Marylanders. We will continue to keep you updated as this work progresses.
