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For Immediate Release
 
September 27, 2007

Rep. Green Receives National Association of Public Hospitals Safety Net Champion Award

Houston, TX - The National Association of Hospitals has awarded Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) their Safety Net Champion Award.

 

Rep. Green accepted the award during a ceremony September 19 in the U.S. Capitol's Lyndon Baines Johnson room.  Harris County Hospital District Community Services Administrator Margo Hilliard presented the award to Green in recognition of his commitment to the Harris County Hospital District. In Harris County and in Washington, D.C., Green has opposed Medicaid cuts and policies that would have a detrimental effect on the Hospital District's ability to absorb the increasing costs of uncompensated and indigent care. 

 

Green and his staff have worked extensively with the Harris County Hospital District, notably on trauma legislation and the Ask Your Nurse Program.  

 

Green’s office introduced the Trauma Care Systems Planning and Development Act (H.R. 727), which became law earlier this year. The legislation reauthorized federal trauma care programs under the Public Health Service Act and will help states improve their trauma systems. It also streamlines the way the Health Resources and Services Administration manages trauma care and emergency medical services. It aims to enhance communication and coordination between the state and federal levels, and it includes provisions for improving trauma care in rural areas, where response time is often much slower than in cities where emergency facilities are nearby.

 

Green also worked to develop the Healthy Community Access Program, which provided funds to Gateway to Care in Harris County. Gateway to Care has worked with health care partners like the Hospital District to spearhead initiatives to improve access and encourage folks to seek appropriate medical care.

 

The Ask Your Nurse telephone service was one of the first initiatives of Gateway to Care. It provides a hotline (713.633.CALL) to a Hospital District nurse, who can help determine whether a caller would get the best care at the emergency room or at a doctor’s office. Ask Your Nurse addresses inappropriate use of our hospital emergency rooms, one of the most pressing health care problems in Harris County and across the country.

 

In addition, Green is a co-sponsor of the Public and Teaching Hospital Preservation Act (H.R. 3533), which would extend the one-year moratorium on federal Medicaid regulations that cut billions of dollars in essential funding to safety net hospital and health systems across the country.

 

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