Robert Nelb, MPH, a health policy expert with more than 15 years of experience working on safety net issues for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Congress, begins his new role today as policy director for America’s Essential Hospitals.
By eliminating this fiscal year’s $8 billion cut to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital funding and delaying the fiscal year 2025 cut, Congress affords policymakers valuable time to find a lasting solution to the decade-long threat to DSH support.
We appreciate the strong precedent of bipartisan support for stopping the Medicaid DSH cuts and urge Congress to act swiftly, before the March 8 deadline, to preserve this vital safety net support and eliminate the DSH reductions for FYs 2024 and 2025.
New legislation, introduced by Reps. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) and David Valadao (R-Calif.), would codify “essential health system” in statute, giving policymakers a powerful tool to better target support to the nation’s safety net and improve health care access and equity and public health.
By Andrea Lugo | Categories: Better Together, Blog
Partnerships between essential hospitals and the nation’s only four historically Black medical schools are transforming the face of medicine and culturally sensitive care.
Urge Your Lawmakers to Cosponsor Essential Health System DesignationReach out to your House members today and ask them to cosponsor the Reinforcing Essential Health Systems for Communities Act.
The bipartisan legislation would establish a federal definition of “essential health system” to give Congress a new tool to target support to these foundational members of the nation’s health care safety net.
This report features work at 12 hospitals to improve obstetric hypertension and hemorrhage in Black patients and makes recommendations for future work.
Influencing Public Policy: Enhancing the Voice of Essential Hospital Advocates Welcome to the 2024 Government Relations Academy! This portal is your private online classroom, which you can use to reference program information and content, view session logistics, and generate discussions with fellow class members and staff between in-person and virtual sessions. To navigate within this
In a new report, Essential Hospitals Institute presents findings from initiatives at three hospitals to reduce racial disparities in cardiovascular disease outcomes.
The Office of Climate Change and Health Equity will host national and targeted webinars to help hospitals take advantage of funding for climate projects made available through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Unless Congress acts, $32 billion in DSH cuts over the next four years will undermine these hospitals and could push some to the brink. The scheduled DSH cuts include an $8 billion reduction on November 18, 2023 — more than two-thirds of all federal DSH spending annually.
By Susan Coultrip | Categories: Sustaining Essential Care
This week, tell political leaders what the 340B Drug Pricing program means to your hospital and what will happen if further restrictions are implemented.
More than 300 of the nation’s largest safety net providers and about 5 percent of all U.S. acute-care hospitals, provided more than a quarter of all charity care nationally in 2021, a new report from America’s Essential Hospitals shows.
This annual snapshot of America’s Essential Hospitals’ membership tells a story about the essential people and communities our members serve.
Innovative Essential Hospital Programs: Gage Awards Application TipsExamine the 2024 Gage Awards submission process and learn valuable tips for creating a competitive application.
During a Sept. 21 executive session of a key Senate health committee, Louisiana’s senior senator cited advocacy by America’s Essential Hospitals in his opposition to proposed legislation that would impose harmful site-neutral payment policies on hospitals. “Let me just take an excerpt from America’s Essential Hospitals,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the ranking member on
In the Sept. 14 letter to House and Senate leaders, members of America’s Essential Hospitals warned of the “far-reaching effects” of scheduled deep cuts to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital funding and said the cuts would “undermine America’s health care safety net.”
More than 250 hospitals and health systems that care for low-income and marginalized patients and provide essential community services warned of the “far-reaching effects” of scheduled deep cuts to Medicaid DSH funding.
By Andrea Lugo | Categories: Blog, Building Healthy Communities, Economic Engines
Essential hospitals have adopted innovative wellness and workforce development solutions to overcome burnout, labor shortages, and other challenges.
We are no longer accepting online signatures for this letter. If you have questions or would like to sign, please contact Jason Pray at jpray@essentialhospitals.org. We, the ## leaders of the more than ### undersigned hospitals and health systems, urge you to stop damaging cuts to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) funding. Congress created the
The National Action Alliance to Advance Patient Safety webinar, on Aug. 22, will highlight how leadership engagement can foster a culture of safety.
By Leandra Battisti | Categories: Building Healthy Communities, Uncategorized
Ensuring access to early diagnosis and intervention is key to combatting hepatitis, one of the nation’s deadliest infectious diseases.
America’s Essential Hospitals and its research, education, and leadership development arm, Essential Hospitals Institute, today announced new board chairs and members, who will begin their roles guiding the organizations’ work July 1.
By Andrea Lugo | Categories: Blog, Sustaining Essential Care
Health care workforce challenges, including burnout and staff shortages, are a top concern for America’s Essential Hospitals and its members.
America’s Essential Hospitals recognized four member hospitals for outstanding work to improve health care quality and population health.
By Andrea Lugo | Categories: Building Healthy Communities
Take a closer look at how association members nationwide are celebrating the LGBTQ+ people in their local communities this Pride Month.
The project, supported by a grant from CVS Health Foundation, will continue through March 2024 and fits within a framework of association initiatives to combat structural racism and promote equity.
By Andrea Lugo | Categories: Blog, Vital Viewpoints
Association staff visited essential hospital Jefferson Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia, where they learned about the unique needs of the hospital’s patient population and the programs in place to support the local community.
The Fellows Program, established in 1987, provides strategic leadership and advocacy training to help member hospitals develop and inspire the next generation of essential hospital leaders.
We joined other national hospital groups to urge the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to keep in place pending appeal an Affordable Care Act requirement that most health plans cover certain preventive services without cost sharing.
House panels last week heard testimony on a variety of issues important to essential hospitals, including looming cuts to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital funding, workforce shortages and training, and the 340B Drug Pricing Program.
We thank House lawmakers for their bipartisan leadership to protect patients, communities, and our nation’s safety net with legislation, the Supporting Safety Net Hospitals Act, that would avert disastrous cuts to essential hospitals.
The administration’s decision to expand Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients marks an important step toward ensuring this marginalized group has access to vital health care services.
By Andrea Lugo | Categories: Blog, Leading the Field, Vital Viewpoints
In honor of Women’s History Month, four essential hospital leaders discuss the opportunities that helped them overcome gender barriers throughout their careers and how they think essential hospitals can further elevate future female leaders.
The Health Systems Implementation Initiative aims to decrease the lag between publication of health research and adoption of findings into practice.
More than 70 Policy Assembly attendees visited congressional offices to share association priorities, including eliminating $16 billion in Medicaid DSH cuts over the next two fiscal years, protecting the 340B Drug Pricing Program, and establishing a federal designation for essential hospitals.
The association’s 11-page letter to congressional leaders calls for action to avert Medicaid disproportionate share hospital cuts, support the health care workforce, and establish a federal designation for essential hospitals, among other policy priorities.
By Emily Schweich | Categories: Building Healthy Communities
The three-year Collaborative will leverage data, analytics, assessments, and peer learning to help hospitals and health systems improve community health.
America’s Essential Hospitals today welcomed its fourth and largest class to a novel program that aims to decrease gender disparities in hospital leadership by building on the knowledge and skills of rising women executives.
About America’s Essential Hospitals America’s Essential Hospitals is the leading association and champion for hospitals dedicated to equitable, high-quality care for all, including those who face social and financial barriers to care. Since 1981, America’s Essential Hospitals has advanced policies and programs that promote health, health care access, and equity. We support our more than
The project, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, dovetails with work at America’s Essential Hospitals to combat structural racism. It also will contribute to the association’s response to the ongoing hospital workforce crisis.
In a new podcast series by a physician at association member NYC Health + Hospitals, Beth Feldpush, DrPH, the association’s senior vice president of policy and advocacy, unpacks the complex patchwork of payments that keep essential hospitals afloat.
Welcome to the 2023 Essential Women’s Leadership Academy group page. We are excited to provide a private, participant-only online classroom environment, where you can post questions and answers for your peers and association staff.
FY 2023 Omnibus Spending Bill Includes Essential Hospital Advocacy PrioritiesThe $1.66 trillion package would extend funding for government operations through Sept. 30, 2023, including $120.7 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services, $9.9 billion more than the FY 2022 enacted level, and numerous provisions important to essential hospitals.
What is an Essential Hospital? Providers of Choice for All People, All Communities Essential hospitals share a mission to care for all people, regardless of their financial means and insurance status. Three-quarters of essential hospitals’ patients are uninsured or have Medicaid or Medicare coverage. Marginalized and underrepresented populations and communities with systemic and structural barriers
Hospitals that fill a safety net role need targeted funding to remain on the front lines of public health emergencies and serve the nation’s most underrepresented patients and marginalized communities.
2022 Midterm Election Results: What They Mean for Essential HospitalsAmerica’s Essential Hospitals staff Margaret (Peterson) French and Jason Pray joined Rodney Whitlock from McDermott+ Consulting to walk participants through the election results and explain what they mean for essential hospitals.
The project will support a learning collaborative of essential hospitals seeking to increase access to office-based addiction treatment (OBAT).
Following the midterm elections, the House Democratic Caucus and the House Republican Conference will elect party leadership for the 118th Congress.
