Your Chapter in Action at the State Level
For 2010, NYACP will focus on increasing access to care, promoting patient safety and quality of care, and improving public health.

Access to Care 

• Monitor universal coverage proposals and develop recommendations to improve access in New York State:
  
  o By providing coverage of primary care for all as a first incremental step;
  o By increasing health coverage eligibility levels;
  o By providing tax and other subsidies and purchasing arrangements;
  o By reducing costly, duplicative paperwork.

• Ensure funding and expansion of physician loan forgiveness, scholarships, and practice start up programs and initiatives.
  
  
• Support funding for ambulatory care training provided in physician practices as proposed in the Doctors Across New York program.

• Monitor expand Patient Centered Medical Home Demonstrations across New York.

• Develop recommendations for increases in Medicaid physicians fees to reach 100% of the Medicare fee schedule.

• Ensure adequate reimbursement for graduate medical education.

• Seek comprehensive reform of the Medicare program including stabilization of the reimbursement structure, elimination of negative Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) adjustments, reduction of unnecessary and burdensome paperwork and incentives to increase primary care participation.

• Achieve medical liability reform and encourage alternative systems for dispute resolution in medical liability cases.

Quality of Care and Patient Safety

• Promote methods to enhance the culture of safety including: open communication of errors and incidents and analysis of near miss events.

• Encourage the use of specialty-established evidence-based quality measures, guidelines, and practice standards.

• Improve processes in care coordination and transitions of care.

• Work to assure “pay for quality” initiatives that truly reflect enhancement of the quality of care for patients.

• Seek opportunities to increase the adoption of interoperable electronic health records, and support reporting of clinical data through Health IT systems.
  
  o Provide input on regulatory and legislative policies such as ePrescribing, Privacy and Security and Meaningful Use.
  o Work to define practice transformation challenges and identify available resources and support.

Public Health

• Seek passage of the Family Health Decisions Act.

• Encourage programs to improve adult immunization rates and to provide information and education for physicians on the development of new vaccines.
  o Rectify issues related to inadequate distribution of vaccine supplies.
  o Promote strategies for disaster preparedness and pandemic planning.
  o Ensure access to the Shingles Vaccine by supporting changes in reimbursement methodologies.

• Support programs that address prevention agenda indicators including obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases.

• Continue to support tobacco prevention programs.

• Seek changes in New York State law to define HIV confidentiality guidelines as consistent with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines.

Last Updated: 8.4.10