Introducing Genoa Healthcare’s
Government Affairs Department
Have you ever wondered how you could make a bigger impact on political issues affecting your agency? Federal and State government decisions drastically affect how Genoa Healthcare and our partners do business, whether we are dealing with reimbursements for Medicaid clients, Medicare clients, or prior authorization methodology for mental health drugs. Not only are there pharmacy initiatives affecting the business, there are mental health legislative initiatives such as funding for behavioral health providers, IT projects, and block grants. Genoa’s pharmacists and employees can have a great impact on our success and our partners’ success with state governments on these initiatives. We must speak up if we want our issues heard! To ensure we are heard, Genoa is excited to announce the addition of our Government Affairs Department.
“I am excited to announce this new department and welcome Dale Masten to lead the efforts,” says Mark Peterson, VP.“ Dale joins us with many years of lobbying experience. He began lobbying for the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants in 1996 and held various lobbying positions including his most recent position as Regional Director of State Government Affairs for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS).”
How will we make our voices heard? By the use of a new program called VoterVOICE. VoterVOICE allows all Genoa employees to contact legislators and other government officials on issues that are important to our business and the business of our agency partners in a simple, non-time consuming manner. When the legislature proposes an issue that affects our pharmacy sites and/or agency partners, our pharmacy staff will receive an action e-mail alert from Dale. This e-mail will allow our employees to contact the appropriate legislator in their state via an e-mail which will communicate support of the current issue. Genoa will be writing canned statements for the employees, which can be easily personalized, so the process is even faster! VoterVOICE is an easy way to help inform legislators of Genoa’s and our partners’ views on certain legislation. Genoa has already used VoterVOICE to invite both federal and state legislators to tour our pharmacy sites and has received almost 20 responses! We look forward to working with our partners to ensure your message is heard as well during these visits.
If you have any questions or would like to suggest an issue that Genoa should be involved with on your behalf, please contact Dale Masten at (513) 804-8618 or dmasten@genoahealthcare.com.
