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PALH at Work for You!

Physician Associates for Latino Health sends their thoughts and prayers to all those affected by the recent senseless act at Methodist Dallas Medical Center.

PALH strongly urges you to contact your legislators to enact H.R. 7961 bill or the SAVE Act as law. The Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees (SAVE) Act (H.R. 7961) provides federal protections for health care workers who experience violence and intimidation in their workplace settings. The SAVE Act would provide protections similar to those in the federal statute that criminalizes the assault and intimidation of aircraft and airport workers.

Recent studies reported an increase in physical violence and verbal abuse against healthcare workers over the last two years.

The SAVE Act would ensure offenders are appropriately punished and continue to provide a safe environment in which we all deliver patient care.

PAs for Latino Health believes healthcare workers and health systems should have these protections.

The 118th Congress is in full swing, and advocacy for the PA profession is off to a great start! Two priority bills for the PA profession were recently reintroduced into the new Congress:

Improving Access to Workers’ Compensation for Injured Federal Workers Act (S. 131/H.R. 618)
S. 131/H.R. 618 was reintroduced on January 31 by Reps. Tim Walberg (R-M) and Joe Courtney (D-CT) and Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). Currently, federal employees who are injured on the job cannot receive treatment provided and overseen by a PA when using federal workers compensation coverage. This long-outdated restriction unnecessarily limits federal workers’ access to quality medical care provided by PAs and may disrupt continuity of and timely access to care.

This legislation would modernize the Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA) to allow injured federal employees to receive care that is provided and overseen by PAs and NPs. The bill passed the House of Representatives on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in 2022 but did not clear the Senate before the close of the 117th Congress.

Take Action!

Promoting Access to Diabetic Shoes Act (S. 260/H.R. 704)
The Promoting Access to Diabetic Shoes Act (S. 260/H.R. 704) was reintroduced on February 3 by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), and Darin LaHood (R-IL). The legislation will authorize PAs to certify the need for Medicare patients to obtain diabetic/therapeutic shoes.

Current Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations do not allow PAs to order diabetic shoes. For diabetic Medicare beneficiaries who receive care from a PA, S. 260/H.R. 704 will provide timely access to needed diabetic shoes.

All PAs are encouraged to  be advocates for the profession, and AAPA has numerous tools available for PAs and PA students who want to become involved in grassroots advocacy – go to AAPA’s Advocacy Central and click Grassroots. Additionally, you can help raise awareness of and support for our two priority bills introduced in the House and Senate by taking action on our advocacy alerts that have been created in AAPA’s Advocacy Action Center.

Contact Your Legislators

Preferably through a direct call or email.

You can look up your state legislators via this Link