As a follow up to the North Texas Healthcare Forum on April 29, 2008, the sponsoring organizations have come together to develop the 2008-2009 North Texas Healthcare Reform Policy Agenda. 

Sponsoring Organizations

For the last five months, the group has worked diligently to build a consensus on a health care policy agenda that can benefit the North Texas region. Below, you will find three documents. 

Reform Preamble  |  Reform Policy Agenda  | Letter to elected officials

The first document is the 2008-2009 North Texas Healthcare Reform Preamble, which explains the ongoing collaboration among stakeholders that has occurred after the North Texas Healthcare Forum in April of 2008. 

The second document is the 2008-2009 North Texas Healthcare Reform Policy Agenda, which provides a framework we can use to reach the goal of health care that is accessible, affordable, efficient, and higher in quality for the region. 

The third document is a template of a letter that you can send to your elected official. We encourage you to download these documents and to share them with the officials who represent you in Austin and Washington, D.C.  With your support, we can reach the goal of health care reform in North Texas. 

Who Represents Me?
Find contact information for your member of the Texas Senate, Texas House of Representatives, and the Texas delegation to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Follow this link for more information on how you can become involved. 

2008-2009 North Texas Health Care Reform Policy Agenda Preamble

For all its strengths, the current system of delivering and paying for health care is not equipped to respond to the changing economic, physical, and social needs of the North Texas region. Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured in the nation, with one in four Texans lacking health insurance. The North Texas population is growing rapidly and has a propensity to obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Due to the lack of state resources to appropriately fund Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Programs, the burden of care for the medically needy is largely the responsibility of safety-net hospitals. Providers place a great deal of focus on improving patient safety, quality, and cost efficiency, but these goals are increasingly difficult to achieve given the shortage in nursing and allied health workers in our region and the financial strains being put on important safety-net hospitals. In short, North Texas is in dire need of health care reform.

Many national, state and local groups have made efforts toward health care reform, but these efforts have not led to consensus. Indeed, a few groups and individuals, including some elected and appointed officials at the federal, state, and local levels, have moved beyond principles to specific legislative proposals. But many of these proposals do not consider the underlying problems or fail to reflect the current political, economic, social, and health care environment of the region.

Certainly, North Texas cannot solve the problems of its health care system overnight. But North Texans can come together and reach a consensus on a manageable, common-sense, workable health care policy agenda that speaks with one voice.

In response to the growing demands for reform and the need for a united voice on health care public policy, Texas Health Resources joined with North Texas Commission, Health Industry Council, Texas Hospital Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Arlington Chamber Foundation, and the University of North Texas to host the 2008 North Texas Healthcare Forum in April. More than 200 business and community leaders attended the forum and shared ideas on how to drive transformation of our health care system. Forum breakout sessions were devoted to the following issues:

1. Focus on wellness
2. Most efficient affordable care 
3. Highest quality care 
4. Best information 
5. Health coverage for all paid for by all 

Business and community leaders worked to define challenges, identify root causes, and generate workable solutions for each area. Building on the momentum created by the forum, several organizations continued collaborating to address the troubled state of our health care system. These organizations include Texas Health Resources, North Texas Commission, Health Industry Council, University of Texas at Arlington, Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Council, Dallas Regional Chamber, Arlington Chamber of Commerce, Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Texas Health Institute, and Dallas County Medical Society. The group developed the 2008-2009 North Texas Health Care Reform Policy Agenda. We are confident that this is a health care policy agenda that all North Texans can agree upon. With your leadership and support, we can reach the goal of health care in North Texas that is accessible, affordable, efficient, and of the highest quality.

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2008-2009 North Texas Healthcare Reform Policy Agenda 

Focus on Wellness

• Promote a more cost-effective healthcare system through increased wellness programs and services.
• Ensure adequate funding of primary care services.
• Invest in the region's public health infrastructure, including non-employer programs and community-based health initiatives.
• Provide tax incentives and credits to businesses that encourage healthy choices and behaviors.
• Enhance funding for nursing and allied health education to include a focus on wellness.
• Support coordinated school health initiatives that improve physical education, nutrition, and physical activity.

Most Efficient, Affordable Care

• Implement policies that encourage chronic care management best practices.
• Support broad-based efforts that would provide meaningful information to consumers regarding the price and quality of selected health care services.
• Support national medical liability reform efforts that mirror the reforms established in Texas (i.e., House Bill 4 and Proposition 12).
• Protect reforms to state tort/comp laws that provide fairness, predictability and efficiency in the civil justice system.

Highest Quality Care

• Instigate change so physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, hospitals, nursing homes and other providers work collaboratively to ensure the right care is administered at the right time and in the right setting.
• Increase development and use of evidence-based care.
• Reward care outcomes.
• Increase availability and use of compassionate end-of-life care.
• Support doctors, hospitals and others in working together to coordinate care on behalf of patients.
• Coordinate treatment of physical and behavioral health needs.
• Reduce the nursing and allied health workforce shortage through enhanced funding for educational programs directed toward faculty salaries and student scholarships.

Best Information

• Encourage the establishment of initiatives that support a regional exchange of electronic health information among all providers and institutions in North Texas.
• Develop a comprehensive patient record and make it available to necessary providers.
• Network all providers and institutions through a region-wide health information exchange that allows information to travel to the immediate care providers.
• Create standards to promote the adoption of health information technology to participate in the health information exchange program more easily.

Health Coverage for All, Paid for by All

• Support legislative and regulatory efforts to reduce the number of uninsured and underinsured through the expansion of:
• Eligibility and coverage benefits for Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and other indigent health care programs;
• Affordable individual health insurance options;
• Tax incentives and credits for individuals and businesses that provide employee health coverage; and,
• Coverage to small employers and sole proprietors through the creation of more health insurance pools.

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Template for letter to elected officials

[Date]

The Honorable [Full Name]
[Insert Address]

Dear [Senator/Representative] [Last Name]:

I am writing today to urge your support for health care reform in North Texas. For all its strengths, the current system of delivering and paying for health care is not equipped to respond to the changing economic, physical, and social needs of the region. The soaring costs of health care, along with a faltering economy and lackluster wage growth, are leaving many North Texas families without insurance or with medical expenses that consume a large share of their incomes.

In response to the growing demands for health care reform and the need for a united voice on health care policy, a group of more than 200 business and community leaders in North Texas came together in April of 2008 to share ideas on how to transform health care in the region.  Building upon the ideas discussed in April, Texas Health Resources, the North Texas Commission, Health Industry Council, Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Council, Dallas Regional Chamber, Arlington Chamber of Commerce, Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Dallas County Medical Society, Texas Health Institute, and the University of Texas at Arlington, came together to develop the attached 2008-2009 North Texas Health Care Reform Policy Agenda. The collective aim is to reach the goal of health care that is accessible, affordable and of the highest quality.

The attached policy agenda emphasizes five core elements that can be used to affect policy change: 1) a focus on wellness and prevention; 2) the promotion of efficient, affordable health care; 3) the highest quality of care; 4) the need to establish a regional exchange of electronic health information; and, 5) the support of health coverage for all, paid for by all. The participants of the North Texas Health Care Forum agree that these are the five essential elements of reform upon which we must build if our region wants to achieve better health and better health care. I respectfully request that you show your commitment to healthcare reform by supporting the 2008-2009 North Texas Health Care Reform Policy Agenda.

I hope you agree that the time for action is now. Each year we delay the adoption of these reforms at the federal, state, and local levels, the cost of health care to business will continue to escalate, and the health of Texans without health insurance declines.  By enacting the reform policies outlined in the 2008-2009 North Texas Health Care Reform Policy Agenda, the region can reverse rising healthcare costs, address the challenges of the uninsured, and dramatically improve the quality of care for North Texans.

Sincerely,
[Name]
[Title]
[Organization]
[Address]
[City, State Zip]

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