We Urge the General Assembly and the Administration to:
Improve the Health of All Marylanders
- Preserve broad-based access to affordable health care if the Affordable Care Act is overturned or hobbled
- Make permanent the telehealth enhancements granted during the pandemic and establish payment parity to sustain access to care
- Empower consumers and limit consumer cost exposure by reforming payer practices simplifying billing and collections processes
- Promote health equity by targeting state resources to address social determinants of health
- Grow access to behavioral health care by ensuring adequate supply of behavioral care specialists in the workforce and a consistent array of crisis services in every jurisdiction
Protect the Vitality of Maryland’s Health Care System
- Enhance liability protections for caregivers coping with extreme conditions during catastrophic health emergencies
- Promote durable emergency preparedness by investing in supplies, equipment and health care workforce capacity
- Ensure a predictable, sustainable payment system through appropriate funding updates and policies that foster innovation, flexibility, and partnership
- Support hospitals’ charitable missions by rejecting challenges to their not-for-profit, tax-exempt status that undermine community benefits investments
- Strengthen workplace violence protections by allowing hospitals to obtain a legal remedy on behalf of employees to protect the safety of staff, patients, and visitors
Ensure the Success of Maryland’s Unique Health Model
- Support progression and permanence of the Total Cost of Care Model by setting fair targets for spending, quality, and population health and making synergistic investments
- Reject any increase to Medicaid hospital assessment and block new assessments that raise patients’ costs
- Oppose private insurer policy changes that destabilize coverage by unduly shifting burdens to caregivers and consumers
- Empower health care providers to share accountability for achieving the model’s goals via participation in alternative payment methods
- Facilitate state and local partnerships to mitigate risk factors for asthma, diabetes, substance use disorders, and other chronic health problems