Children’s Nebraska (Children’s) had the honor of hosting virtual Hill visits with the Nebraska delegation and the Cooper family as part of the Speak Now for Kids Family Advocacy Day with Children’s Hospital Association (CHA).
While this event typically takes place in Washington, DC, we continued to take extra precautions this year while continuing to raise the platform for children with medical complexities like Dathin and Bryelle Cooper, who spoke so bravely about their complex medical journey. Read more about the family’s journey here.
U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) gave a remarkable welcoming address to hundreds of children’s hospitals and patients from across the country, followed by personal 1:1 virtual sessions with each of Nebraska’s congressional delegates to discuss the following public policy priorities:
- Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act ( 1544/ H.R. 3089). This legislation seeks to streamline the Medicaid provider screening and enrollment process for children traveling across state lines to receive care. As it currently stands, Medicaid programs require out-of-state providers to be screened and enrolled in their program even if the provider is already enrolled and in good standing with their home Medicaid program. This process is time consuming and exhausts precious resources. By passing this bill, we would generate greater efficiencies to delivering care to those children most in need.
- Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education (CHGME). Every year, we ask Congress to secure funding for children’s hospitals who are committed to training the future pediatric workforce. Today, children’s hospitals that receive CHGME funding- just 1 percent of all hospitals- train half of all pediatric residents and current funding falls far behind adult-GME on a per-trainee basis. In FY 2021, Congress secured $350 million in funding CHGME. Today, we are asking Congress to close the funding gap and offer $485 million.
- Mental Health. Long-term and sustainable investments in the emotional, mental and behavioral health of our nation’s children is more critical than ever. A large piece of our ask to Congress falls on people once again, needed the infrastructure to offer a robust mental health delivery system with early and organized interventions will result in better outcomes and lower costs. Portions of the Strengthening Kids’ Mental Health Now legislation addresses these concerns and request for a more robust community effort to prevent mental and behavioral health crisis from occurring.
Thank you to our Nebraska lawmakers for supporting the unique needs of children in our state!
