Health Care

Access and Affordability:

1. Support legislation that reduces the cost of health care benefits for small employers and/or provides incentives for employers to carry health coverage for their employees.
2. Oppose any attempts to pass “any willing provider” legislation.
3. Oppose legislation restricting an insurer’s ability to negotiate rates with providers.
4. Support minimizing government regulations which increase health administrative costs.
5. Support a state statute which requires a financial impact study prior to a health insurance mandate's consideration in committee.
6. Support measures that make the High Risk Pool financially viable and a reasonable safety net for those who qualify. 
7. Support appropriate measures to assure all drivers are continuously insured.
8. Support mental health courts, similar to the drug courts that divert mentally ill offenders to health services vs. prison.
9. Implement an health insurance information hub that provides ease of comparison for health insurance plans and options for individuals, employers and employees, again through stimulus funds.

Children’s Coverage:

1. Support measures to expand children’s access to psychiatric and substance abuse services and local systems of care to meet the needs of children and teens with serious emotional disturbances, including family support, without adding insurance or employer mandates.

Medicaid and Indigent Care:

1. Support services to the uninsured through continued funding for the OSU Medical Center and $7 million annually to OU’s Tisdale Health Center.
2. Support ways to leverage and maximize federal funding of reimbursement programs such as Insure Oklahoma, SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program), Medicaid, Upper Payment Limit (UPL), Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) and Graduate Medical Education (GME).
3. Support continued funding of Medicaid programs at least at current levels, if not higher, and to the extent that such funding is possible, at least maintain or increase eligibility and benefits.  Cost sharing options should be explored.  Reimbursement levels should realistically reflect the actual cost of the services provided.
4. Provide durable, consistent, and predictable funding for Medicaid and indigent care providers utilizing a provider fee or other options to maximize federal opportunities for Medicaid and to maintain providers at the Upper Payment Limit (UPL). 
5. Support state-wide allocation of new Disproportionate Share to Hospitals funds (DSH).
6. Support assessment all third party payers of health claims to generate the matching funds to support premium assistance plans.
7. Support appropriate competitive bidding for durable medical equipment and lab tests in both Medicare and Medicaid.

Wellness and Health Awareness:

1. Ensure that funding is secured for the implementation of the comprehensive Oklahoma Health Improvement Plan.
2. Establish a permanent source of public funding for the development of a comprehensive primary and preventive care system for Tulsa’s at-risk population that supports increased partnerships across essential community organizations, safety net providers and FQHCs; development of Health Hubs, such as the proposed North Regional Health and Wellness Center and the existing Indian Health Care Resource Center; extended hours at all sites; and appropriate incentives for those accessing these services.
3. Support programs for children and youth that provide evidence based comprehensives sexuality education, anti-obesity education and tobacco, drugs and alcohol education.
4. Support the development of incentives to employers, employees and insurance companies to participate in wellness.
5. Support the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services’ Smart on Crime proposal to reduce the need for incarceration by identifying and treating mental health and substance abuse issues at various diversion points within the criminal justice system.

Medical Research:  

1. Establish partnerships with other (public and private) universities, foundations, and civic organizations, locally and statewide, that promote growth of the bioscience industry in the Tulsa area.
2. Support public sector pilot projects for implementing the principles of evidence-based medicine and the medical home models.
3. Continue toward fully funding the state’s EDGE endowment and advocate for expanding financial support for OCAST; seek whatever actions are necessary to ensure greater equity in the investment of EDGE and OCAST funds for Tulsa research enterprises.
4. Support continuing development of bio-science and engineering research laboratories at Tulsa area institutions.
5. Support establishing an entity in Tulsa that assists universities and local scientists with commercialization, intellectual property, meeting regulatory needs for research conduct, and, otherwise, promotes Tulsa as a research community to public and private investors/grant-makers.

Health Care Workforce:

1. Strengthen and grow the Oklahoma health care workforce through increased funding and collaboration for training programs for nurses, mid-level practitioners and primary care physician workforce; greater retention of health care graduates; increased class size; and specialty training fellowships.
2. Encourage collaboration and cooperation between the health professional education programs located at OSU, OU and other area universities.
3. Support necessary funding that permits an increase in OSU’s and OU’s medical school class size and taking OU to all four years; ensure that each medical school is funded at the same per student level.
4. Support legislation to fund pilot projects to demonstrate how productivity and quality can be improved in health care delivery in Oklahoma.  With the continuing shortage of physicians, nurses and other health care providers, Oklahoma must improve both productivity and quality of existing services.  As the Oklahoma Health Care Authority implements the medical home model, pilot programs should be conducted to demonstrate how productivity and quality can be improved.

Oklahoma Health Care Authority:

1. Support the addition of hospice services and urgent care to the Medicaid program as being cost-effective.
2. Support the timely provision, including same-day services, of family planning services for men and women under the Medicaid Family Planning Waiver, making services available to teens and adding sexually transmitted infections to the services to be provided.
3. Maintain the 12 month minimum coverage period for state Medicaid program.

Issues to Monitor:

1. Monitor Insure Oklahoma expansion.
2. Monitor the progress made in trauma funding and coordination.

Federal Policies:

1. Organize a Tulsa regional wellness and prevention program and maximize federal and available stimulus funding for this regional initiative.
2. Maximize federal Health Information Technology funding and available stimulus funding for the Tulsa Region for health information technologies, health information exchange and health information management - organized as a Tulsa regional consortium.
3. Secure public funding for hospital services, urgent care, outpatient and specialty care services, FQHCs and graduate medical education at Tulsa based medical schools to insure appropriate access to care for the underserved patient population which relies upon the Tulsa healthcare network for services.
4. Encourage expansion of tuition reimbursement and loan deferral programs to expand the health care workforce.
5. Support legislation that helps disproportionate share hospitals provide programs to the low income and uninsured.