Recognizing Dr. Shetal Shah, Md, Faap

Floor Speech

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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 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.

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