"The Ronan Report" provides insight about the activities at the Western Maryland Health System in Cumberland, Maryland, and about the changes taking place in healthcare today from a CEO's perspective.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

A Somewhat Surprising, But Welcomed Call

The other day I was sitting at my desk and my cellphone rang.  I looked at the caller ID and it said "Paul Sabarnes."  I answered the phone and it was US Senator Ben Cardin.  He said that his staff was following my daily blog and he felt that he needed to call me directly related to some recent topics.  He said that he certainly valued my opinion and if there was any time that I wanted to talk with him that he would arrange it. 

Some of my recent blogs have been about the Affordable Care Act, sequestration and ethics in government.   In some cases, they were less than flattering for our Federal Government.  I told Senator Cardin that I greatly appreciated that he reached out to me.  I said, for example, that there are aspects of the Affordable Care Act that fit very well with our Total Patient Revenue initiative at WMHS, but there are also some challenges.  He said that my input was important and he would like to hear more from me.  I assume directly and not through my blog, although I have always been complimentary of Senator Cardin.  His politics occasionally will differ from mine, but I think that he represents Maryland, and especially western Maryland, extremely well.  He is one of those guys who is rated very favorably by his constituents (deservedly so), while Congress as a whole is poorly rated.  The Senator said that his door was always open to me in Washington and on a future trip to western Maryland, he would love to sit down and talk with me.  Again, a welcomed call.  Thank you, Senator.

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