The PCC and some of its Executive Members joined many other healthcare-related organizations in a Sept. 30 letter as part of the Coalition to Improve Diagnosis, an initiative of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, to leaders of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee/Subcommitee. The letter from the organizations asked the leaders, as they develop the fiscal year 2022 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, to include a dedicated increase in funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) patient safety portfolio specifically to expand and accelerate the agency’s work to improve diagnostic safety and quality. The letter urged the Appropriations Committees to allocate at least $8 million in additional, dedicated funds for FY22 for these activities, matching the House-passed amount.

The letter goes on to state that AHRQ is poised to help the Coalition to Improve Diagnosis improve diagnostic safety and quality through a research and quality-improvement pipeline modeled on the agency’s highly successful efforts to combat Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI). The Senate matching the House's passage of an increase of $8 million in dedicated funding for diagnosis improvement efforts in the FY22 Appropriation would be an important step toward a robust portfolio of work that will put life-saving tools and practices into the hands of healthcare systems, clinicians, and patients, the letter states.

Read the full letter.