We Welcome You . . .With All Our Might

Welcome to N.A.C.H.’s new blog, With All Our Might. The title might strike you as odd for a blog that focuses on child health policy, but it sums up the effort that those of us who either work on child health public policy issues, provide medical care to a child or are the parent of child who has been ill or suffers from a chronic condition: we do it with all our might. It takes energy and passion to give voice to the health care needs of children. It’s our hope that we’ll be able to capture that spirit as we write about the latest child health issues.

Unfortunately, discussions on health care often do not have a special focus on children.  As parents, providers, and patients we know that children require unique health care services to keep them healthy and strong.  In this blog we will attempt to highlight important health policy issues to focus on what they mean for children.  We start with our first blog that looks at the critical workforce shortage for children, which is the opposite of workforce challenges for adults. 

Our blog kicks off on the same day as the Wall Street Journal publishes findings from our 2009 Pediatric Specialist Workforce Survey. The article, "For Severely Ill Children, a Dearth of Doctors", written by Laura Landro, makes the case that ongoing shortages in pediatric specialties contribute to the problem that many families face in accessing timely care for their children. The article features interviews with a family from Oregon, originally from Alaska, treated at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and doctors from Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Akron and Children’s Medical Center of Dayton. The article also offers an overview of the legislative solutions to address the shortage in pediatric specialists including equitable Medicaid reimbursement, Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education and loan forgiveness.   Tomorrow we will hold a briefing for Congressional staff on the results of a NACHRI study, which the article references, that show these critical shortage areas. 

We hope the article and the briefing will raise awareness for policy that we believe should be included in the final health care reform bill, specifically provisions that would raise Medicaid reimbursements to Medicare levels. The House takes a step by raising reimbursements of services, such as doctor office visits, coded as Evaluation and Management, under Medicaid to Medicare, but there’s more to be done.

So with all our might, we plan to elevate child health policy issues through this blog and welcome you to join in this ongoing discussion on how to improve access and coverage for children in this country. Lend your voice to our efforts by signing up to be a contributor to the blog or by participating in the conversation with your comment posts.

Comments

[Norman Saba, M.D., FAAP; Chairman, Department of Pediatrics, Cardon Children's Medical Center, Mesa, AZ.]

I look forward to following your blog and hope their will be progress in the area of Graduate Medical Education funding. As our state budget falls shorter and shorter of meeting its goals, programs such as GME get looked at for cuts and this can only negatively impact our ability to train physicians in our state.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=515233402]

Thanks for starting this blog and the new "This Week" e-newsletter. It's great material to share with our Parent Action Committee on Facebook, Twitter, and in our own e-newsletter. Keep up the great work!

Jessica Catlin, Marketing/Communications Manager, Phoenix Children's Hospital
http://www.phoenixchildrens.com/advocacy/

[Thomas McCormally, Sr. Director of Public Relations, Cincinnati Children's]

Welcome to the blog-o-sphere. Looking forward to the dialogue. You might also want to check out the Cincinnati Children's Corporate blog, which is devoted to public policy and public health issues, quality, safety and transformation.