January 2011 mailing

Wishing everyone a Happy, Healthy, Safe New Year We of course will have to work very hard to accomplish these basic needs.


CPHS's first Membership Meeting in the New Year is scheduled for Monday, January 3, 2011 at the Urban Justice Center, 123 William Street, 16th floor- at 6:30 p.m.! Thank you everyone for making our annual membership meeting, in December, such a success. This was helped by our extraordinary speaker, Tom Duane. We did a lot of great thinking and discussion about what CPHS should prioritize in the coming year and some strong proposals were thrown onto the table. With your participation, we can start the New Year strong and turn our ideas and concerns into action!


 Here are some of the proposals made at the last meeting that we will discuss at the January meeting. We have a jam-packed agenda!

  1. CPHS constituent groups need to meet and develop our own 2011 Health Care Agenda and Priorities. Then we need to get the chairs of the Health Committees for NY City Council, State Legislature to jointly call for a "2011 Health Summit" to discuss and set the agenda and priorities for health care in 2011.
  2. Instead of going after public funding to preserve our health initiatives and programs, we need to start making demands of corporations in the City and State, i.e. the beverage industry, the food channels to give money towards issues like childhood obesity.
  3. For CPHS members to get invited to schools to make presentations on obesity or to help facilitate a discussion with young people.
  4. Draft and send out a letter to all legislators, newly elected and incumbents, on the City, State and federal levels- asking them in behalf of all our constituent groups and the nation as a while, to make a commitment in their inaugural addresses on behalf of quality, accessible, and affordable health care for all.

 As you can see, these are only some of the incredible ideas thrown out at the last CPHS meeting. We still need to sharpen, add to and clarify these proposals. We need to put our heads together and strategize. This is an encouraging start for the New Year and we have to build a strong foundation to fight with. Join us for the next meeting and get your voice out.


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The next State Health Commissioner will be Dr. Nirav Shah. This is a very important post in NYS. It is the Health Commissioner's responsibility to make policy and decision- making on issues such as Medicaid, access to care, reimbursement rates, what gets built and supported and what gets cut out. Is he qualified to ensure that we have services available and accessible to low-income, medically underserved, immigrant and communities of color? There has been a lot written about Dr. Shah seeing patients at Bellevue Hospital. We are hoping that Dr. shah will have a strong focus on patients and communities, rather than on research.

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With the Affordable Care Act, millions of uninsured will become insured and yet, where will they go if the safety-net system deteriorates? The Health and Hospitals Corporation is implementing its "Road Ahead" reconstruction proposal and CPHS has voiced our concerns at some of HHC's Annual Public Meetings. There is one more left: the Manhattan hearing will be held on January 11, 2011 at 6 PM at Bellevue Hospital Center- 462 First Avenue, 12th Fl Conference Room. You can call 212-788-3360 to reserve a speaking spot and you can call/e-mail us for CPHS/HHC Talking Points if you need help preparing a testimony.

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CPHS has organized a coalition to work with the State to improve a proposal they submitted to CMS for federal dollars. The money would go to teaching hospitals and we strongly believe these dollars should be used for improving care- and that is what we are negotiating. There are going to be serious cutbacks in Medicaid this year. So whatever money is available should be spent wisely.