Logo
August 18, 2019
Laying the Groundwork for 2020
MHA recently returned from the Maryland Association of Counties conference, where our team met with state and local leaders, lawmakers, policymakers and influencers to advocate and better position us as we head into the 2020 legislative session.

Maryland has a 90-day legislative session, but we are working year-round on your behalf. And with just over four months until the General Assembly reconvenes, we are laying the groundwork for a successful session.

Just a few of our activities over the interim include:

  • Surveying the field on governance/conflicts of interest to demonstrate our hospitals and health systems adhere to the highest standards
  • Working with hospitals on a statewide disclosure form for facility fees and creating consumer education tools to promote transparency
  • Preparing a major workforce push, including loan repayments for physicians
  • Improving the medical liability climate
  • Planning a legislative preview for your public relations and government affairs leads and providing tools and resources to advocate on key issues
  • Organizing a legislative breakfast in Annapolis for your CEOs/government leads

We are optimistic heading into next year’s session, but we know there are significant challenges ahead and are working hard to address any new potential issues. As always, we are working in lock-step with your government affairs leads to face these issues — and others — head on.
Bob Atlas
President & CEO
MHA Comments on HSCRC’s Proposed Integrated Efficiency Policy
The Maryland Hospital Association submitted a comment letter on the HSCRC’s proposed Integrated Efficiency Policy. The draft HSCRC staff recommendation was presented at the July public meeting. HSCRC staff will review comments received and address considerations before bringing a final recommendation before the commission in October. For additional information, contact MHA senior vice president, Brett McCone .
MHA’s Medicaid System of Care Task Force Has Second Meeting
The Maryland Hospital Association's (MHA) Medicaid System of Care Task Force had its second meeting August 13. The group discussed how its work aligns with the work of the state and efforts related to improving care coordination across the behavioral health continuum for the Medicaid population. The task force’s deliberations will help inform the state Medicaid program’s efforts to review its behavioral health delivery system.

MHA Contact: Maansi Raswant , Vice President, Policy
MHA Presents on Human Trafficking at MACo
The Maryland Hospital Association’s vice president of government affairs, Jennifer Witten, presented to the Diversity Caucus at last week's Maryland Association of Counties' summer conference. Witten shared an update on efforts underway, in partnership with other stakeholders to update Maryland's human trafficking medical response guidelines. The guidelines were originally developed by the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force in 2015. A work group of Maryland forensic nurse examiners and child abuse experts are working on updating the guidelines, which will be ready for release later this year.
MHA Announces New Hires
The Maryland Hospital Association (MHA) is pleased to welcome:

Katie Eckert is MHA’s new vice president of health care payment. Katie joins MHA from Bon Secours Mercy Health, where she is the chief financial officer, post acute services, and leads operations finance for the Atlantic Group. She previously served as the health system’s director of operations/finance, and the director of budget and reimbursement, including interim CFO responsibilities, at Bon Secours Baltimore Health System. Katie’s first day with MHA will be September 16. She will be an integral part of MHA’s health care payment team, where she will help to address regulatory and financial issues through the lens of her hospital experience.

Ahmed Elsayed-Ahmed has joined MHA as director of strategic analytics, where he will conceptualize data analyses to support advocacy efforts that illuminate hospitals’ performance with managing total cost of care and improving quality and safety, as well as identifying opportunities to support hospitals’ continued efforts with these goals. Previously, Ahmed was the director of population health and payer analytics at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, directing activities related to defining and managing large-scale strategic planning, reporting, and analytic efforts in support of all population health and accountable care activities. He has also held positions at Johns Hopkins Medicine, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, and KPMG, working in positions related to the development of health care reform and transformation initiatives focused in population health and patient-centered medical homes.

Diana Hsu joins MHA as a health policy analyst having worked as a federal consultant for Logistics Management Institute, serving as a task lead and subject matter expert for the Medicare Shared Savings Program, as well as supporting Next Generation Accountable Care Organizations. Before that, she worked at the CMS Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics as a student intern, and at the University of Maryland Law Drug Policy and Public Health Clinic as a student attorney. Diana earned her law degree (JD) from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and has a public health degree (MPH) from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Diana is barred as an attorney in Washington, D.C., New Jersey and New York. Her work at MHA will focus on policy development related to Medicaid and private payers.

Vidhya Keerthi Tirumalaraju joins MHA as a policy analyst of quality and health improvement. She joins MHA from the Florida International University (FIU) Health Care Network clinic, where she was a health policy analyst and developed a telehealth policy for the 55,000 FIU students. She will be an integral part of MHA’s quality and health improvement team, where she will strive to address and improve the quality and health of the Maryland hospitals, health systems through her policy analysis skills and experience.
Want to receive your Toward Better Health
newsletter via text message?
Click here to sign up.
Maryland Hospital Association | www.mhaonline.org