Contact Your Lawmakers:

Protect Innovation at Essential Hospitals

Association Comments on 2026 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters

November 13, 2024
Julie Kozminski

In a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), America’s Essential Hospitals commented on the proposed changes to benefit and payment parameters for federal health care marketplaces, state-based marketplaces on the federal platform, and state marketplaces.

America’s Essential Hospitals calls on CMS to ensure equitable access to qualified health plan beneficiaries’ preferred health care providers across all marketplaces through essential community provider threshold requirements and network adequacy standards. This would limit disruption of patient-provider relationships when insurance coverage changes between Medicaid and marketplace coverage.

The association also shared essential hospitals’ efforts to help patients enroll in relevant health coverage and financial assistance, noting that essential hospitals must have sufficient resources to conduct these outreach, enrollment, and financial assistance activities.

Contact Director of Policy Rob Nelb, MPH, at rnelb@essentialhospitals.org or 202.585.0127 with questions.

Keep up with the pulse of America's Essential Hospitals

Members: Sign up for email updates.