FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Statement attributable to:
Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH
President and CEO
America’s Essential Hospitals
WASHINGTON—We thank the administration for hearing our concerns about how it targets Public Health and Social Services Fund funding and for directing additional dollars to hospitals bearing the heaviest burden of COVID-19 care and costs.
We appreciate Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Azar’s commitment to distribute this funding quickly and to target providers suffering the most from this pandemic, and we look forward to details about how targeting will occur. As additional aid becomes available, we hope the focus will remain on ensuring funds reach the essential hospitals on the front lines of this public health emergency and caring for many low-income and uninsured patients.
But targeting will require complete and accurate data, and we have concerns about technical problems providers now face as they try to comply with the department’s request for targeting data. We call on the department to extend its data submission deadline until it has resolved these technical issues and clearly and publicly communicated how it will use this information.
We also urge the administration to streamline access to the various COVID-19 funding sources by minimizing application processes and requirements that create administrative burden.
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About America’s Essential Hospitals
America’s Essential Hospitals is the leading champion for hospitals and health systems dedicated to high-quality care for all, including the most vulnerable. We support our more than 300 members with advocacy, policy development, research, and education. Communities depend on essential hospitals to provide specialized, lifesaving services; train the health care workforce; advance public health and health equity; and coordinate care. Essential hospitals innovate and adapt to lead the way to more effective and efficient care. Learn more at essentialhospitals.org.
Contact:
Carl Graziano
cgraziano@essentialhospitals.org
202.585.0102
