The South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organization (SDAHO) attended the annual meeting of the American Hospital Association in Washington, DC with a dozen South Dakota members. The group spent time listening to a plethora of speakers from political heavy weights such as Majority Leader McConnel and Speaker Pelosi to leadership and respect speakers like General Colin Powell, Retired. The panels and discussions were in-depth and lively.
SDAHO and members also took to Capitol Hill to discuss health care issues with our Federal Congressional Delegation. The SDAHO members discussed issues related to Indian Health Services, Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) lockout, access to broadband, the permanent enforcement moratorium on the direct supervision rule for critical access and rural hospitals, 340B program changes, drug prices, surprise billings, Disproportionate Share Payment (DSH) cuts effective Oct 1 and Sequestration impacts. The meetings were extremely well received by the South Dakota Congressional members and the SDAHO members did an incredible job in articulating issues impacting their facilities and how the Congressional Delegation could help fix these issues.
SDAHO members that attended were:
- John Ayoub, CEO, Mobridge Regional Hospital and Clinics
- Bryan Breitling, Administrator, Avera Hand County Memorial Hospital
- Corey Brown, Director of State and Government Affairs, Sanford Health
- Deb Fischer-Clemens, Senior Vice President of Public Policy, Avera Health
- Paul Hanson, President, Sanford Health
- Dan Holdhusen, Director, Government Relations, Sanford Health/Good Samaritan Society
- Bryan Slaba, CEO, Wagner Community Memorial Hospital – Avera
- Bob Sutton, President/CEO, Avera Health
SDAHO Staff that attended were:
- Tim Rave, President/CEO
- Deb Peters, Vice President Communications & Member Relations
- Tammy Hatting, Vice President of Post-Acute Care and Education
- Kallee Rydland, Director of Events and Assistant to the President
