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The Important Issues

Title	Body
Certificate of Need	South Carolina is one of 35 states that rely on a Certificate of Need law to restrict the overbuilding of costly medical services
Reimbursement	South Carolina hospitals' revenue stream is critical to their overall mission of providing care.
CMS Rules and Regulations	Access proposed rules, final rules, and comments submitted by SCHA to CMS on behalf of member hospitals.
Medicaid	Deep cuts in the state's Medicaid budget threaten access to care for many low-income South Carolinians.
Peer Review	It is widely recognized that South Carolina has one of the weakest peer review statutes in the nation.
Tobacco-free hiring policies	Realizing that hospitals and their employees should be positive examples in the community and must do everything possible to rein in health care costs, many hospitals across the nation are adopting
Health Care Reform	Hospitals in this country have a legal obligation to care for patients that is unlike the obligation of any other business or individual.
Medical Liability Reform	Recent research shows the average American family pays an additional $1,700 to $2,000 per year to cover the costs of defensive medicine.
Medicare	Medicare is a federal program that pays for certain healthcare expenses for individuals who are age 65 or older.
HIPAA: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act	HIPAA is an acronym that stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.
VBP: Value Based Purchasing	Value is the relationship between the price of a product and the quality of the product.
False Claims Act	The “False Claims Act” dates all the way back to the American Civil War, enacted to address fraud perpetrated by both the Union north and Confederate south against the Federal Government.
Behavioral Health	South Carolina's system for providing care to mentally ill citizens is in crisis.
Organ Transplants	Presently, there are more than 102,000 people on the national waiting list who need a life-saving organ transplant.
Trauma System	When a trauma victim receives proper medical care within the first hour following an accident his chances of survival triple.
EMTALA	The Federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires hospitals to provide treatment treatment regardless of ability to pay.
Influenza	Before the official flu season begins is the appropriate time to reflect on last year's influenza season while preparing to face the challenges of the next.
Emergency Preparedness	South Carolina's hospitals care for people under the most disastrous conditions. For instance, located on the coast, our state and its people face the real threat of hurricanes each year.