[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 139 (Wednesday, October 8, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10713-S10714]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO CHARLIE BOWMAN

 Mr. BOND. Mr. President, this year marks the culmination of a 
distinguished career in health care for an individual whose name has 
become synonymous with the respect and appreciation accorded Missouri 
hospitals. Charles L. Bowman joined the Missouri Hospital Association 
staff on October 1, 1975, as vice president of legislative services. He 
assumed the presidency in January 1986. During his 22 years of service, 
his word has been his bond, and he has established a solid reputation 
of integrity in the legislative arena for himself, the association and 
the hospital industry.
  Charles Bowman helped shape activities of the Missouri Hospital 
Association at a time when the health care delivery system was 
undergoing dramatic changes and health policy was assuming a greater 
importance on the country's public policy agenda. During this period, 
he charted an advocacy course for Missouri's hospitals through 
upheavals in the State tort reform laws, massive changes in 
reimbursement for the Medicare Program, and complete redesign of 
Missouri's Medicaid Program.
  His interest always has been in developing sound health care policy 
that helps hospitals serve their communities more fully. He advanced 
landmark legislation in Missouri that provided consent for emergency 
health care to be rendered to minors, and legislation that provided a 
definition of death. He also provided the impetus for a statewide 
voluntary initiative among hospitals to release hospital charge data so 
that consumers might become more familiar with the price of health care 
services.
  Charles Bowman has championed equity in reimbursement policy designed 
to preserve vital access to health care in rural and inner-city 
communities. And he has been a proponent of health system reform that 
gives hospitals and other providers the opportunity to organize local 
delivery systems of coordinated care that will allow seniors and others 
to continue the relationships with health care providers they have 
trusted over the years.
  Charles Bowman has forged a remarkable partnership between Missouri 
hospitals and State agencies that led to expansions in health funding 
for poor Missourians, development of an innovative scholarship program 
to help increase the number of health care providers in underserved 
areas of the State, and creation of a process for assessing and 
improving community health that has become a model for other States.
  Through his 22 years of leadership for Missouri hospitals and health 
systems, Charles Bowman has kept the focus of association activities on 
improving health care for all Missouri's citizens--by spearheading 
legislative programs, forging collaborative partnerships and seeking 
innovative solutions to problems of health delivery. He has been a

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credible voice for Missouri health and an advocate for a strong, 
unified health care community in Missouri.
  His truly has been a distinguished career of health care 
service.

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