Missouri Children’s Hospitals Attend Children's Hospital Association Family Advocacy Day
Missouri children’s hospital leaders, along with Missouri Hospital Association staff, recently traveled to Washington, D.C., for Children’s Hospital Association Family Advocacy Day. They met with federal legislators and their staff to discuss the 340B Drug Pricing Program and Medicaid, which play an important role in the ability for Missouri children's hospitals to provide care to youth and families across the state.
Joining them was a powerful voice — a patient advocate. A young cancer survivor and her family from Kansas City shared how impactful the nurses and physicians at Children's Mercy Kansas City were in helping with her cancer journey. She discussed how it felt to receive a cancer diagnosis at age 14 and the ongoing care needed, even after her successful treatment.
“Her story allowed us to highlight the importance of the 340B program in helping families have access to specialty drugs, so treatments can begin quickly. This would be made more difficult with a move to a rebate model,” Wolf said.
Hospital leaders and MHA’s advocacy team also discussed the important savings provided by the 340B program that allows hospitals to meet the needs in communities by opening service lines, such as behavioral health, to address the behavioral health crisis facing Missouri youth.
In addition, St. Louis Children’s Hospital staff showcased its Raising St. Louis program during the advocacy event. Legislative staff, families and Children's Hospital Association members stopped by their booth to learn about this program that connects pregnant mothers, fathers and family members in 22 ZIP codes in the St. Louis community with services to build and sustain the family unit.
Raising St. Louis partners with Nurses for Newborns to provide prenatal and postpartum health check home visits to families. The program also offers hospital community health educators certified in the Parents as Teachers curriculum and hospital community health workers to connect families to local resources for health, mental health and early education, often addressing the kind of stressors that can otherwise lead to abuse or neglect.
The Missouri Hospital Association is a nonprofit association in Jefferson City that represents 136 Missouri hospitals. In addition to representation and advocacy on behalf of its membership, the association offers continuing education programs on current health care topics and seeks to educate the public about health care issues.