Welcome to the January edition of the Health Care Alliance for Patient Safety (HCAPS)’s newsletter, and happy New Year! Check out an exciting HCAPS announcement and our advocate survey below. Enjoy reading!

Welcome the New Executive
Director of HCAPS

HCAPS is extremely excited to announce our new Executive Director, Ralph Kohl! Ralph joins us with an extensive background in health care advocacy. 

Ralph will continue propelling HCAPS as a leader in advocating for patient safety and the doctor-patient relationship. We’re looking forward to how his vision will advance public policy and push patient care and vision protection forward.

Getting to Know HCAPS Advocates

HCAPS aims to make advocacy as easy as possible for everyone in our community. To help you better reach your legislators and achieve policy goals, we want to know more about you!

Please take a moment to fill out our advocate survey and share your policy interests and how HCAPS can enhance your advocacy journey - it will only take a couple of minutes.

How Will the Election Results
Impact Our Industry?

On November 8, Americans exercised their right to participate in our democracy and cast their votes for their preferred candidates in state and local elections. Between familiar and new faces, how did optometry and patient safety fare? 

Champions for myopia in Congress Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN 2) and Rep. John Joyce (R-PA 13) both won re-election! HCAPS celebrates their victories as their work to urge the CDC to develop a myopia prevention plan will be critical this year. 

The Contact Lens Prescription Verification Modernization Act remains a bipartisan piece of legislation and HCAPS is hopeful to see its reintroduction in the new Congress. 

HCAPS is committed to keeping our community informed about the opportunities we have to advocate for patients. Stay tuned this year as we look to push critical pieces of legislation that will benefit patient safety and the doctor-patient relationship.

Request for Proposals for Federal
Lobbying Services

HCAPS is inquiring about proposals from qualified lobbyists that can provide general consulting and lobbying services. Award of the proposal is anticipated to be announced within thirty days.

For more information, read the full Request for Proposal here. The request outlines the rules and scope of work. If you have any questions or comments please contact Ralph Kohl, Executive Director of HCAPS at [email protected].

Thank you all for reading and for your continued advocacy. We appreciate you taking the time to fill out our survey and we look forward to connecting with you throughout the year!