At two Senate hearings, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra presented the Biden administration's health care budget. In a joint statement, America's Essential Hospitals and other organizations raised concerns about a new alliance between drug companies and community health centers.

America's Essential Hospitals has responded to a request for information (RFI) on health care workforce shortages by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The association also plans to respond to an RFI on reauthorizing the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act.

The agency proposes to limit the types of patient days associated with Section 1115 waivers that are included in the Medicaid fraction of the hospital’s disproportionate patient percentage.

Key health committees in the House and Senate issue requests for information — one on reauthorizing the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act and another to examine health care workforce shortages.

Two proposed rules would extend many flexible provisions enacted during the COVID-19 public health emergency for prescribing controlled substances.

The U.S. House and Senate Committees on Appropriations are accepting appropriations requests for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations process.

The proposed rule implements Section 203 of the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, altering the rules for considering the costs and payments associated with Medicare and commercial dually eligible patients when calculating a hospital’s Medicaid DSH uncompensated care limit.

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.

Unless Congress acts, $32 billion in DSH cuts over the next four years will undermine essential hospitals and could push some to the brink. The scheduled DSH cuts include an $8 billion reduction on October 1, 2023 — more than two-thirds of all federal DSH spending annually.

Our proposal would codify a designation of essential hospitals in statute, allowing lawmakers to better target support to improve access to care and public health.

The 340B program continues to work as Congress intended. America’s Essential Hospitals urges Congress and the administration to protect the 340B program and ensure all stakeholders comply with the law.

The proposed rule implements Section 203, which alters the process for calculating the Medicaid disproportionate share hospital uncompensated care limit.

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.

The updated fact sheets share when specific waivers will end and whether they will continue after the public health emergency's end on May 11.

The guidance informs states how to maintain the temporary increased federal medical assistance percentage while returning to normal Medicaid operations.

The Drug Enforcement Administration no longer will require additional registration for prescribers to prescribe buprenorphine.

An FDA committee will vote on the future of the COVID-19 vaccine, while CDC unveils two trackers for COVID-19, flu, and RSV–related hospital and emergency department visits.

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. 

House and Senate lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill this week to find regular legislative business overshadowed by a growing partisan debate about the nation's debt limit and spending on Medicare, Social Security, and other federal programs.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) last week determined party representation ratios for the committees on Appropriations, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, and Ways and Means.

Prioritizing hospitals in health professional shortage areas, CMS awarded residency slots to 100 hospitals, including 27 essential hospitals.

After the omnibus bill decoupled Medicaid redeterminations from the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, CMS updates key redetermination dates.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is elected speaker on the 15th vote after a dramatic and, at times, chaotic week in the House. America's Essential Hospitals pursues essential hospital designation on Capitol Hill.

Medicaid and CHIP coverage of interprofessional consultation is permissible as long as the consultation is for the beneficiary's direct benefit.

The report summarizes responses to a 2022 request for information, which focus on eligibility and enrollment, access to hospital services, and payment.