STATE ISSUES
Medicaid Reform
As the state continues to improve health outcomes and modernize payment models to incentivize value within the state’s Medicaid system, the Chamber supports the continued delivery of optimal outcomes by the state’s Medicaid Managed Care Model. We further believe this model is the most effective means to address the state’s total health care needs on a systemwide basis.
The Chamber supports protecting the current Medicaid supplemental payments or equivalent programs to our state’s medical schools and their hospital partners to ensure uninterrupted funding for medical education and the other unique services each provide.
Insure Oklahoma
The Chamber supports continued efforts to protect, preserve and further improve Employer Sponsored Insurance (ESI) offered under the state’s Insure Oklahoma program.
Research and Development
The Chamber supports efforts to foster an environment that is conducive to further research and will oppose efforts to unreasonably restrict the continued development of the state’s bioscience and research programs.
The Chamber will further support marketing Oklahoma as a rising research, product and technology development hub; support start-ups, engage in intentional efforts to attract scientists, engineers, and researchers back to market; and work to retain our premiere research workforce.
Clinical Trials
The Chamber will support Oklahoma’s position as a market for excellence in clinical trials.
Oklahoma City County Health Department
The Chamber supports local public health efforts/responses and, therefore, supports protecting the independence of the Oklahoma City County Health Department.
Tribal and Rural Health Care
The Chamber supports the continued development of Oklahoma’s rural and tribal health care systems and entities that create products, services, technologies and treatments that further health outcomes for American Indian and rural populations.
Workplace Violence
The Chamber supports maintaining continued focus on protecting Oklahoma’s health care workforce that is facing increased incidences of violence in the workplace.
Vaccine Mandates
The Chamber supports allowing each company/business to determine whether to mandate vaccinations for its employees.
Health Care Mandates
The Chamber opposes new health insurance mandates and liabilities that will undermine an employer’s ability to provide quality health insurance at a reasonable cost to employees.
The Chamber further opposes new mandates being placed on physicians, hospitals and providers that will increase the cost of providing quality health care in Oklahoma.
Paid Family and Medical Leave
The Chamber opposes a state-mandated and/or state-run paid family and medical leave program of any kind imposed on Oklahoma employers.
Network Protection
The Chamber opposes legislation, restrictions, regulations and taxes which would eliminate the incentive for medical providers to contract with managed care networks and, as a result, potentially frustrate efforts at cost and quality control and ultimately deny consumers the benefits of cost-reducing arrangements with providers.
The Chamber further opposes legislation that would interfere with an employer's ability to offer affordable health benefits due to a reduced ability to control benefit plans relating to prescription drugs.
Employee Retirement Insurance Security Act (ERISA) Protections
The Chamber opposes legislative efforts to undermine federal ERISA protections.
Medical Education Funding
The Chamber supports maintaining physician training funding for the state’s two largest medical schools in the base budgets of the University Hospitals Authority and Oklahoma State University Medical Authority.
Physician and Nursing Shortage/Rural and Underserved Access
The Chamber supports the following initiatives to address health care disparities: 1) incentivizing the recruitment and retention of primary care physicians, specialty physicians, mental health professionals and allied health professionals in rural, underserved and other areas; 2) expanding residency programs for the state’s medical schools; and 3) strengthening the health care workforce by expanding programs that train medical professionals as well as the number of available nursing school spots, and supporting the success of the Oklahoma Nursing Center. The Chamber supports efforts to identify new public funding streams dedicated to these initiatives.
The Chamber also supports the appropriate expansion of existing technology platforms, such as telemedicine and telehealth, and data platforms to enhance access to health care for Oklahomans.
The Chamber supports Oklahoma’s participation in medical compacts to improve access to high-quality health care.
Workforce and Talent Development
The Chamber supports efforts to grow and bolster talent pipelines of skilled professionals to fill cutting-edge research, scientific and health care roles critical to our health and life science economies.
Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust
The Chamber supports the constitutional provisions of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) to support the public health of Oklahomans, and to support research and grant functions of the programs.
Appropriations Support of Community Health Centers
The Chamber supports adequate state funding for community health centers to provide quality health care to underserved Oklahomans, prevent cost shifting to other entities and maintain a healthy workforce for Oklahoma’s employers.
Health Care Funding
The Chamber supports protecting existing public health care revenue streams and opposes cuts to the state Medicaid budget that would increase the burden of uncompensated care and shift costs to employers and health care providers.
The Chamber further supports a stable funding and tax structure for the health care industry to promote optimal care delivery and innovation.
The Chamber will further encourage state investment in support of the biosciences industry and associated clusters.
Child Care
The Chamber supports targeted policies designed to increase availability of non-mandated, high-quality childcare and out of school time options to help generate increased workforce development.
Wellness Initiatives
The Chamber supports the following state and local initiatives, including wellness, disease prevention and care programs, that serve to improve the physical, behavioral and mental health of Oklahoma citizens: tobacco prevention programs; efforts to mitigate the harmful health effects of e-cigarettes/vaping; public outreach initiatives; efforts to address health disparities; and workplace and school-based wellness initiatives, including health education and healthy eating programs.
Prevention of Disease
The Chamber recognizes the detrimental impact of chronic and communicable diseases (including substance use disorder) on the quality of life for Oklahoma’s residents and the severe economic costs they impose on health care providers and employers. Therefore, the Chamber will support efforts by the state’s elected officials, medical research and public health communities to develop avenues to successfully prevent and combat congenital, chronic, pandemic and communicable diseases.
Clean Indoor Air
The Chamber supports legislation to make all indoor areas smoke free as well as legislation to remove smokers, on a non-medical basis, as a protected class in state employment law.
FEDERAL ISSUES
Federal Funding for Research and Health/Life Science Infrastructure:
The Chamber supports protecting and increasing funding for life science and health care infrastructure and programs including, but not limited to: the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST)
This includes:
Single-Payer Health Care
The Chamber supports improving health care quality, access and affordability without imposing new mandates and/or taxes on businesses or removing employer choice. Therefore, the Chamber opposes a single-payer government-run/public option or health care system with excessive government mandates.
Employer-Driven Market Reforms
The Chamber believes that employers drive innovation in health benefits and supports market-driven health reforms as the best approach to reducing costs while promoting market stability, efficiency, wellness and quality of care.
Medicaid Cuts
The Chamber opposes Medicaid cuts that would place increased pressure on reimbursement rates, negatively impact the adequate delivery of critical services to the most vulnerable, exacerbate an already high administrative burden for health care businesses and shift the increased burden of uncompensated care to employers and health care providers.
Research and Development
The Chamber supports efforts to foster a federal policy environment that is conducive to further research and will oppose efforts to unreasonably restrict the continued development of national bioscience and research programs.
Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA)
The Chamber will support reauthorization of PAHPA (2006) to comprehensively improve the Nation's public health and medical preparedness and response capabilities for emergencies, whether deliberate, accidental, or natural.
Public Health Grants
The Chamber will advocate for federal public health grant dollars to be allocated directly to local city-county health departments.
Tribal and Rural Health Care/Joint Venture Construction Program
The Chamber will protect and enhance federal support for tribal and rural health care including, but not limited to, the Joint Venture Construction Program which is a premiere example of federal-tribal partnership to ensure availability of first-class tribal health care infrastructure.
