[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 107 (Thursday, June 23, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E664-E665]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 RECOGNIZING DR. SHETAL SHAH, MD, FAAP

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. THOMAS R. SUOZZI

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 23, 2022

  Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, as I near the end of my Congressional 
public service, I rise today to recognize my constituent Dr. Shetal 
Shah, MD, FAAP of Syosset, New York for his sustained and expert 
advocacy in support of children's health. During my tenure representing 
New York's third Congressional District, Dr. Shah has been an 
indispensable resource to my office--and the entire Long Island 
Congressional Delegation, on issues related to children.
  As former Legislative Chairman of the Long Island Chapter of the 
American Academy of Pediatrics and an expert in the intricacies of 
children's health insurance, Dr. Shah worked with my office to 
staunchly defend the gains in children's health insurance coverage made 
as a result of passage of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable 
Care Act. His vigorous advocacy, in partnership with several national 
medical organizations, assisted our office and other members of New 
York State's Congressional Delegation in preserving core provisions of 
this landmark legislation, including the expansion of Medicaid and 
pediatric-specific tenets of the essential health care benefits 
package.
  He has also worked to ensure reauthorization of the Children's Health 
Insurance Program, which in New York insures almost 750,000 of our 
state's children. Dr. Shah has been a vocal supporter of the need to 
reauthorize this program since its inception and worked with myself and 
fellow members of Congress to reauthorize this incredibly successful 
program again in 2018, safeguarding health coverage and access for all 
children covered by Child Health Plus.
  A national pediatric leader in advocacy and child health policy. He 
has articulated the importance of providing robust federal funding

[[Page E665]]

for major programs which impact children across Long Island and the 
nation. These include the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical 
Education program, the PREEMIE Act, and the Emergency Medical Services 
for Children Act. His worked has been a supporter of legislation to 
increase access to pediatric subspecialty care and provide loan 
repayment to pediatric subspecialty physicians who care for patients 
from medically underserved areas in those branches of medicine.
  Through lectures and scholarly articles in the medical literature, 
Dr. Shah also outlined the need to modernize the Vaccines for Children 
Program, advocating for legislation that would create incentives for 
more physicians to participate and provide routine childhood 
immunizations. This work closely aligned with his work to increase 
Medicaid payments to those of Medicare, creating more equity for 
children throughout our federal healthcare system.
  Throughout the COVID pandemic, Dr. Shah had served as a leader in the 
state on the pediatric implications of the pandemic. At the pandemic's 
onset, Dr. Shah--now serving as President of New York Chapter 2 of the 
American Academy of Pediatrics, helped support pediatric immunization 
efforts by allaying fears about COVID vaccines, combatted the 
omnipresent vaccine misinformation that appeared across social media, 
reinforced the importance of wearing a facemask to prevent virus 
transmission, provided timely updates on changes to COVID protocols to 
over 1500 pediatricians across Long Island. Though fighting the 
pandemic as frontline physician, Dr. Shah hand-delivered over 10,000 
pieces of personal protective equipment to pediatricians across 
Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties. At a time when these 
resources were extremely scarce, these deliveries helped over 200 
physicians across New York City and Long Island. In several cases, 
these deliveries allowed pediatric offices to stay open, so they could 
continue to care for children with chronic medical issues throughout 
the early months of the pandemic. Upon creation of the Paycheck 
Protection Program, he assisted practices representing over 100 
physicians in applying, often working in their backyards so they could 
navigate the process of securing financial assistance and forestall 
layoffs or furloughs of office staff.
  I was extremely proud to partner with Dr. Shah, who noticed that an 
initial draft of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security 
(CARES) Act, did not provide for payment of telehealth services for 
certain Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and high 
deductible health plans. As these plans cover a large proportion of my 
constituents across New York State, my office served as an agent for 
New Yorkers, working to certify they could use telehealth to access 
healthcare during the stay-at-home period of 2020.
  We should take special note that all of this work is done as a 
volunteer, and independent of Dr. Shah's work as a specialist in 
neonatal-perinatal medicine, providing care for the most critically-ill 
and premature infants in our state at a Regional Perinatal Center, New 
York's highest designation for a neonatal intensive care unit. This 
work, made harder by the challenges of the pandemic, is among the most 
emotionally and physically demanding specialties in medicine, and we 
are fortunate that we have dedicated newborn specialists like Dr. Shah 
caring for our most fragile New Yorkers.
  For this work with my office, his leadership, dedication and service 
to the members and children of the Long Island Chapter of the American 
Academy of Pediatrics, the chapter received the coveted 2020 
Outstanding Chapter Award during his presidency, their first such award 
in over 57 years.
  Madam Speaker, as I prepare to leave Congress, I wish to thank 
constituents like Dr. Shah for volunteering his time, passion and 
energy to provide advice on children's health issues. He serves as an 
example of how strong partnerships between engaged representatives and 
local experts in their districts can achieve better health for 
children. He has been among my most trusted advisors over the past 6 
years on Medicaid, vaccinations and all aspects of child health policy. 
I take this opportunity to congratulate him, and the Long Island 
Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics for their dutiful work on 
behalf of our children.

                          ____________________