National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (NAPH)
The Situation
Representing over 100 hospitals and health systems that together comprise the essential infrastructure of many of America's largest metropolitan health systems, the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (NAPH) is the leading national advocate for safety net hospitals and health systems, securing almost $14 billion in Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments and almost $4 billion in Medicare DSH payments for NAPH members over 10 years. Since its inception in 1980, NAPH has cultivated a strong presence on Capitol Hill, with the executive branch, and in many state capitols, making significant strides in educating federal, state, and local decision makers about the unique needs of, and challenges faced by, member hospitals and the nation's most vulnerable populations. A member driven organization, NAPH provides a full spectrum of lobbying services on legislative and regulatory issues of concern to safety net hospitals and health systems, primarily focusing on safety net hospital financing.
As a service to its members, NAPH monitors all federal legislative and regulatory issues that are of special concern to providers of care to the uninsured, lobbies federal officials and lawmakers, shapes appropriate messages, and develops policy proposals. NAPH leads national advocacy efforts on key issues such as the Medicaid and Medicare DSH financing programs. The association employs five staff members who focus a portion of their time on advocacy, and is also supported by an outside consulting firm that provides day-to-day legislative and regulatory monitoring. As the Manager of Grassroots and Member Relations, Julie Rocchio is responsible for advocacy for the Health Resources and Services Administration's Community Access Program which provides grants to more than 30 NAPH members, and is tasked with implementing their strategic planning goal to strengthen the political clout of NAPH and its members by increasing grassroots involvement and improving communication with members about their grassroots advocacy.
The Challenge
According to Ms. Rocchio, "NAPH had not previously utilized a legislative tracking service. Because we have a fairly small staff tasked with communicating a large amount of timely and accurate legislative and regulatory information to our members, we were interested in finding a service that offered tools which would allow us to better manage, communicate, and collaborate policy development for our membership."
The Solution
"We researched GalleryWatch.com at the suggestion of one of our members who subscribes to GalleryWatch's state service in Texas, and who requested our assistance with access to the company's federal services," said Ms. Rocchio. "After reviewing the impressive services and tools offered by GalleryWatch, the decision to move ahead was an easy one. We immediately recognized the value that the service would bring to our organization. The main reason we made the decision to subscribe to GalleryWatch was to give our members access to the timely and comprehensive information offered by the service. While NAPH focuses on issues that impact our membership across the board, many government relations staff within our membership focus on industry-wide and/or local issues that we do not cover. GalleryWatch provides our members with access to the information they need, when they need it. In addition, several of our members are beginning to utilize GalleryWatch's Federal Register database to search for federal grant opportunities. For NAPH staff, the monitoring that is already being provided for us by our outside consultants is greatly enhanced by GalleryWatch's daily e-mail updates on key issue areas of importance to NAPH."
The GalleryWatch Difference
According to Ms. Rocchio, "GalleryWatch has complemented our efforts to keep our members informed about what is happening in Washington, D.C. It has also greatly enhanced the quality of our grassroots interaction since members are now more educated about issues and events so that we can focus our collaborative efforts more on our broad strategy. With respect to NAPH staff, the timeliness and accuracy of information provided by GalleryWatch, which had not always been available to us in the past, has been invaluable. The very impressive GalleryWatch team has been extremely responsive to our interest in looking for new ways to maximize the service, such as exploring a grassroots seminar for members which will include a GalleryWatch training session focused on mutual issues and areas of interest to NAPH and our members."
"We have found particular value in the instant e-mail alerts provided by GalleryWatch which keep us from missing out on anything that is happening on issues of importance to NAPH. Beyond the service itself, we have also been extremely pleased with the high level of quality customer support provided by GalleryWatch's staff. I continually receive reports from our members that they too are very pleased with the service and the attentive customer service they receive. Subscribing to GalleryWatch has definitely proven to be a very wise and cost-effective decision for NAPH and our members."
About GalleryWatch's Federal Services
Information and services provided by GalleryWatch on the federal level include tracking and searching capabilities on legislation, congressional Members and committees, and federal agencies. Notification capabilities for most services include receiving timely updates via e-mail, text messaging, PDA's, and pagers. Two exclusive services offered by GalleryWatch are Congressional VIP which enables users to effortlessly track and analyze Member voting history and patterns, and GalleryWatch's USBudget service, the most comprehensive source of information on the $2.1 trillion federal budget which offers in-depth analysis and summaries on all the components and line-item program details of the budget. Additional services include committee transcripts, committee reports, and editorial coverage which are available though GalleryWatch's partnership with The National Journal and Congressional Research Reports which are available through GalleryWatch's partnership with Penny Hill Press.
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