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WHA's Grassroots Advocacy Program
Print brochure and sign up today!
Sign Up On-line!
The late Illinois Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirkson once said, "When I feel the heat, I see the light." It's a great statement on the power of grassroots advocacy, and, it's exactly what WHA is doing through our Hospitals Education & Advocacy Team (HEAT) grassroots program - helping you bring heat and light directly to your legislators on issues of importance to your hospital and the communities you serve.
Issues like medical liability and Medicaid are ones HEAT members have and will continue to weigh in on. In 2006, HEAT members sent legislators an overwhelming message after the Supreme Court overturned Wisconsin’s 10-year old cap on non-economic damages: restore a liability cap now! Thousands of emails, phone calls and letters went out and dozens upon dozens of meetings were held to tell legislators that a cap on non-economic damages was essential to retaining access to care in Wisconsin. Legislators listened and restored the cap in the spring of 2006 (2005 WI Act 183).
Hospital outpatient reimbursement rates for Medicaid are something HEAT members continue to be engaged on. Reimbursement rates are extremely low, resulting in rates for hospitals of just $94 for procedures like an MRI or a tonsillectomy. When Medicaid reimburses hospitals so dismally, the costs are shifted onto private payers in the form of premium increases -- to the tune of $546 million in 2005 alone. That's Wisconsin's "hidden health care tax."
Do your legislators know there's a hidden health care tax? Do they know how Medicaid funding impacts your hospitals and your communities? They need to and HEAT will provide you with the tools to effectively tell them.
HEAT gives you the information, the insight, the strategy and the assistance you need on all these issues and more so you are able to communicate with your legislators on issues of importance. When you join HEAT expect to receive legislative fact sheets, legislative Alerts when timely action is needed, the Capitol Connection e-newsletter, our grassroots advocacy toolkit and more. The program is specifically designed to facilitate your grassroots involvement - whether that be writing a letter or coming to WHA's Annual Advocacy Day in Madison - so the voice of hospitals and their employees is heard loud and clear by the Legislature and Governor Doyle.
HEAT is free of charge to join. Its only requirement is that you care about your hospital and your communities enough to do something about them. Join today!
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