Traumatic Brain Injury Resource
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BIAA Continues Advocacy As 2008 Winds Down

As this year comes to a close, the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) would like to thank you for your support during 2008 – a year which included many accom­plishments in advocacy on behalf of individuals with brain injuries and their families. Chief among these accomplishments, of course, was successful re authorization of The Traumatic Brain Injury Act!
Yet, as we reflect during this holi­day season on the advocacy achievements we are thankful for this year, we also know that much more needs to be done to improve brain injury care and services in this country.

BIAA is uniquely positioned to carry this important message into 2009, and to the incoming Obama Admin­istration, as well to continue its lead­ing advocacy role on Capitol Hill, urging the nation’s lawmakers to ade­quately address the public health epi­demic of brain injury.

The BIAA was recently invited to meet with members of the Obama Administration transition team to discuss disability and health care policy issues, as well as to share BIAA’s leading public policy pri­orities. On Tuesday, December 16, BIAA’s President and CEO, Susan Connors, and BIAA’s National Medical Director, Dr. Gregory O’Shanick, represented the organi­zation at this meeting. They com­municated to the members of the Obama team that BIAA’s chief public policy concern centers on improving access to health care for survivors of brain injury. Specifi­cally, Ms. Connors and Dr. O’Shanick described how every day, hundreds – perhaps thousands – of brain injury survivors are deprived of the acute care, rehabil­itation, and related services they need to regain maximum function and quality of life after their injury. They further explained that this is largely due to the widespread use of unfair and unjust tactics by health insurers, such as inconsis­tent pre-admission policies, arbi­trary limits on scope and duration of care, outright coverage denials, absurd payment rates, and capri­cious post-treatment audits. The hope was expressed to the Obama team that any effort to reform the nation’s health care system must address these delays and denials of access to care, as our nation is needlessly increasing permanent disability among people who sus­tain brain injuries.

Ms. Connors and Dr. O’Shanick also discussed with the Obama team the importance of maintain­ing and increasing the health and function research portfolio, includ­ing the TBI Model Systems of Care program, within the National Institute on Disability and Rehabil­itation Research (NIDRR), as well as the need for TRICARE to offi­cially cover cognitive rehabilita­tion for returning service members.

As 2009 approaches, BIAA encourages you to visit President-Elect Obama’s webpage on health care reform and submit your own comments about how to improve the nation’s health care system to better address the needs of brain injury survivors.