| Register
Now! |
Don't
miss this incredible 6 hour CME
event!
"Disaster
Management
and Emergency Preparedness:
the Pediatrician's Role"
October 28, 2009
|
| Free
Immunization Bookmarks
available in 4 colors
To
order batches of 100, email George
Dunkel at:
front
back
 |
|
|
| Last
Chance to Vote! |
Thursday, October 1st is
the last day to vote for AAP
President Elect!
VOTE
ONLINE HERE
Candidates:
* Anne Francis, MD, FAAP -
Rochester, NY
* O. Marion Burton, MD, FAAP -
Columbia, SC
|
|
|
Dear
NY Fellow, 
As we look to the new budget and
legislative year here in New York
State, and continue to work on the
key children's issues in national
health care reform, we can take a
moment and savor the victories we
were able to secure for children
in New York last year despite
great chaos and confusion in state
government and the challenges that
a huge state budget deficit
presented.
Henry Schaeffer, MD, FAAP
Chair, AAP District II, New York
State
|
|
Victories
to Celebrate
1)
Bills Passed (the District will be
involved in the implementation of
both)
- Flu in the NICU - which will
require all hospitals with a NICU
to offer flu shots to parents and
other caregivers of NICU patients
- Breastfeeding Bill of Rights
2)
Maintained all state investments in
children's health, despite
significant budget cuts
3) Received clarification and
simplification from the State
Department of Insurance on timely
payment for newly approved vaccines
As
we look forward to this new year of
opportunities and challenges for
pediatrics here in New York, below
please read about a sampling of the
practice, policy, budget and
legislative issues that we will be
working on. Of course, this
list represents our current
internal, membership driven
priorities.
|
|
Children's
Mental Health Services in Primary
Care
The District is currently involved
in developing a focused partnership
with the NYS Office of Mental Health
and the State Department of Health
to provide pediatricians with
necessary additional training and
support to offer a level of mental
health treatment in the primary care
setting. This initiative will
also include creating an enhanced
rate of payment to support the work
of those pediatricians who are
trained and want to offer the mental
health services in their offices.
To support our efforts in children's
mental health, the District will
create a coalition, called the AAP
Partnership for Children's Mental
Health. The Partnership will
be similar to our NYS Immunization
Coalition. We will be reaching
out to other stakeholders in
children's mental health, including
organizations representing health
insurers, parents, providers and
young people themselves.
|
|
New
York State Medical Home
We continue to vigorously advocate
for a Bright Futures NY model as
the best way for New York to
create a true "Medical
Home" for children. It
is imperative that we all talk
about Bright Futures and work hard
not to let the special needs of
children get lost in the state's
ongoing work to create a model for
medical homes. In addition,
work continues as members reach
out to our federal representatives
to assure that children's needs
remain part of the ongoing health
care reform debate. Again, our
role is to talk about the fact
that children are not just small
adults, they are special and have
special defined health care needs.
We need to continue to raise our
voices articulating that any
health care reform initiative must
recognize the special health care
needs of children.
|
 NYS
Immunization Coalition:
Bookmarks Now Available!
Our
newest publication is a very
colorful and information packed
bookmark on Immunization.
The bookmarks are FREE and
are available to all members in
large quantities to give out to
parents. These bookmarks are
designed for web savvy parents who
may have questions about vaccines.
You
can order your free bookmarks in
groups of 100 by contacting the
District II Executive Director,
George Dunkel, at gdunkel@aap.org.
|
|
Foster
Care Task Force
We have re-energized the District's
Foster Care Task Force. The
District has been asked to develop a
position on the state's proposal to
take a new look at the way foster
care agencies get paid for providing
health care to children in their
care.
|
Teen's Health Care
Bill of Rights
 We
are working with public and private
child serving agencies to get AAP NY
Chapter 3's newly revised Teen's
Health Care Bill of Rights into the
hands of young people across the
state. To date we have
distributed several thousand booklets
to the Office of Children and Family
Services for their Juvenile Justice
Prevention Programs, to The Health
& Hospital Corp in NYC for their
adolescent clinics, to ACS for its
tween and teen foster care and
prevention populations, and to
Children's Aid in NYC for its
community based and prevention
programs. In all, we have given
out more than 10,000 copies in the
last several months. Our next
partners will be the school based
health programs in middle and high
schools.
|
|
Pediatric
Councils
As always, the Pediatric
Councils in each of the three AAP NY
Chapters continue to meet with key
representatives of the health
insurance companies in the Chapters
geographic area. In each meeting
the Chapter Councils work to solve
specific problems identified by
members. To date the Councils in
all Chapters have had some successes
and some frustrations. But the
work goes forward and the
relationships being built will help us
better represent the needs of children
and pediatricians to health insurers.
This is what the District is doing
now. As the year unfolds, our federal
and state representatives will surely
offer us policy, budget and
legislative initiatives that will
require our fierce advocacy for
children, families and pediatricians.
We look forward to working with all of
you to make a real difference for
children and for pediatricians across
our state. |
|
|
|
