AHDI and CDIA members on Capitol Hill in May were eager to get the support of our nation’s leaders around the importance of a comprehensive, accurate health story. In addition to sharing our collateral materials around Capturing America’s Healthcare Story, advocates on the Hill sought specific support from legislators. Members of Congress were asked to submit a letter to Dr. Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, with the request that ONC take the patient narrative into account in developing standards for EHR systems. Over 74 legislative offices indicated an interest in providing this level of support, all of whom have now been provided a draft letter for review and signature, and early feedback is very promising. We’re excited to announce that Congressman Bob Filner, 51st District, California, was the first to submit a letter to ONC in support of our message:
Filner Letter to Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM
Congratulations to the AHDI/CDIA members from California whose advocacy efforts with this office led to such an immediate statement of support.
Legislative Tracking
AHDI/CDIA advocacy staff is diligently tracking all outgoing and inbound emails and phone calls to ensure that consistent communication with these legislative offices continues. Keeping our organizations and key messages on the "radar" of legislative contacts is an important part of what we are doing in followup to our Advocacy Summit. To that end, we are now using Basecamp, a web access project management platform, to track all legislative contacts and will be coordinating these efforts with the Legislative Leaders for each state.
Legislative Issues Group (LIG):
Now the Advocacy Alliance!
Given the strong participation of our new Legislative Leaders Program, we are migrating our Legislative Issues Group to an alliance format. The new Advocacy Alliance will be open to anyone in either AHDI or CDIA who wants to stay connected to advocacy information or engage in advocacy dialogue. You do not have to be a Legislative Leader or an active advocate to join or participate in discussions. Regular monthly meetings will now be held by the Legislative Leaders Program (see below) and the leaders who chair that steering committee:
AHDI Chair: Sheryl Williams, CMT, AHDI-F
CDIA Chair: Steve Gaus
Board Liaison: Karen L. Fox-Acosta, CMT, AHDI-F
Staff Liaison: Lea M. Sims, CMT, AHDI-F
Legislative Leader Program
On the heels of Advocacy Summit, interest and participation in the Legislative Leader Program is growing. If your state does not currently have a Legislative Leader assigned and you have an interest in fulfilling this role, check out our Become an Advocate page for more information about the role as well as resources available for those who participate and contact Miranda Chalabi (mchalabi@ahdionline.org) to get connected to the program. Look for information about our Legislative Tracking Training webinars for Legislative Leaders in the next week or two.
Not Too Late to Follow Up!
If you participated in legislative visits at the Advocacy Summit and have not yet sent a followup/thank-you letter to your legislator or legislative aide, please do so as soon as you can. A personal followup from a constituent is an important part of establishing long-term, productive relationships with our legislative offices. If you need some help drafting your followup, use the template below:
Advocacy Summit Followup Letter to Legislators
District Connections
Meeting with your Senators and Representatives when they return to their districts will be critical to spending more one-on-one time with those officials and connecting our advocacy messages to what’s going on in your local area. Check out the dates for Senate and House recess coming up soon:
Senate Recess Dates
July 4-10, 2011
August 8 – September 5, 2011
September 26 – October 2, 2011
House Recess Dates
June 27 – July 5, 2011
July 18-24, 2011
August 8 – September 5, 2011
September 26 – October 2, 2011
Begin making plans now to secure face time with your legislator during these recess periods.
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