Hospitals today face unprecedented challenges, seemingly from all sides. As we aim for better health for Marylanders, we encounter obstacles to building our workforce, upgrading our facilities, and strengthening our bonds with the communities we serve.
We also have others trying to drive the narrative away from our not-for-profit hospitals’ life-saving work. They falsely claim we care more about finances than about patients. They blame hospitals for conduct better associated with profit-seeking insurers and drug companies.
We aim to change this narrative—and to challenge those pushing it—as we enter the 2020 legislative session. To succeed, we’ll need to speak collectively with one voice and with one message.
That is why Wednesday, when the Maryland General Assembly convenes, MHA will launch Caring For Maryland—#Caring4Md—a campaign that speaks to the core mission of your hospitals.
Our message is simple: While Washington politics paralyze health care, Maryland’s hospitals are doing it right. We’re bringing health, hope and healing to every single Marylander.
We’ll tell your staff and patient stories directly to policymakers. We’ll share how you are improving lives and making a difference in your communities. We’ll ask you to like and share #Caring4Md content on social media and to add your own voices to our message. (Email
us to join that effort.)
- Enact medical liability reform and protect access to essential services by raising evidentiary standards for life care plans, ensuring patients are compensated fairly
- Fill critical provider shortages in high-need areas by streamlining and fully funding the state loan repayment program
- Win promised reductions to the Medicaid Deficit Assessment
- Ease our behavioral health crisis by removing restrictions to access for appropriate levels of care and fully funding Maryland’s two Institutions for Mental Diseases
Watch this space weekly—and a dedicated web page—for Caring For Maryland updates. We also will update our
advocacy website regularly throughout session with written testimony and details about bills we are tracking.
Our hospitals have a great story to tell. Working together that story and our message will resonate in Annapolis and across the state.