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America’s Essential Hospitals welcomes media inquiries about the association, its members, and policymaking that affects health care for vulnerable people. We can provide a national perspective on Medicaid and Medicare, the nation’s health care safety net, hospital quality improvement, research on care for the underserved, health care disparities, reform, and other topics.

Our staff experts are ready and able to answer your questions. We also can work with you to arrange interviews with leaders at our member hospitals and health systems. Let us help give your report a human face and local perspective.

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Media Contact

Carl Graziano
Senior Director of Communications
cgraziano@essentialhospitals.org
202.585.0102

News Releases

Hospital Association Honors Four Members for Quality, Population Health

Jun 21, 2018 || Staff

The Gage Awards honor creative and successful programs at essential hospitals that enhance patient care and meet community needs.

News Releases

America’s Essential Hospitals Picks Veteran Advocate to Lead Capitol Hill Efforts

Jun 21, 2018 || Staff

Cleveland Clinic government affairs chief Carlos Jackson will join the association as its new vice president of legislative affairs and oversee the organization’s Capitol Hill work.

News Releases

New Data Show Essential Hospitals’ Commitment to Mission Amid Resource Challenges

Jun 19, 2018 || Staff

The annual report from America’s Essential Hospitals shows the association’s members provided disproportionate levels of uncompensated care, charity care, and physician training in 2016.

News Releases

Project ACHIEVE Study Identifies Desired Care Transition Outcomes

Jun 14, 2018 || Staff

Research, led by the University of Kentucky and supported by Essential Hospitals Institute, found that outcomes most important to patients and families are preparedness, accountability, and feeling cared for by providers.

News Releases

Statement on CMS Decision to Postpone Hospital Star Ratings

Jun 12, 2018 || Staff

The agency says postponing the July release will allow additional time to analyze the impact of changes to some measures.

News Releases

Statement on Rep. Matsui Introduction of SERV Communities Act

Jun 12, 2018 || Staff

The bill would bring relief to essential hospitals and their patients from damaging Medicare outpatient payment cuts and much-needed accountability for manufacturers in the 340B Drug Pricing Program.

News Releases

HRSA Should Revisit Delay of 340B Rule

Jun 1, 2018 || Staff

The delay enables manufacturer overcharges that jeopardize access to affordable drugs for vulnerable patients and drive up costs for hospitals.

News Releases

End Delay of 340B Program Ceiling Price, Civil Monetary Penalties Rule

May 4, 2018 || Staff

The decision to delay rules to safeguard patients and hospitals from drug company overcharges is unacceptable and undermines the 340B Drug Pricing Program.

Essential Updates

Hospitals to Get New Tools for Discussing Cost of Care with Vulnerable Patients

May 2, 2018 || Staff

America’s Essential Hospitals this week kicks off a year-long project to equip hospitals with education and tools to support conversations with vulnerable patients about the cost of health care. The project is funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

News Releases

Statement on President’s FY 2019 Proposed Budget

Feb 12, 2018 || Staff

The nation’s safety net cannot sustain the dramatic cuts in this proposal to Medicare, Medicaid, and other social programs on which low-income working Americans and their families depend.

News Releases

Budget Deal Is Welcome Relief for Vulnerable Patients, Essential Hospitals

Feb 9, 2018 || Staff

Congress made the right choice this morning for patients and communities by voting to halt damaging cuts to hospitals that care for low-income working families and others who face financial challenges.

News Releases

Essential Hospitals Laud Medicaid DSH Cut Delay in Funding Bill

Feb 5, 2018 || Staff

America’s Essential Hospitals praises lawmakers for including a two-year delay of Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payment cuts in the latest proposal to fund the federal government.

News Releases

75 Groups Urge Congress to Extend Vital Health Care Programs, Policies

Jan 29, 2018 || Staff

The groups called for swift action on seven programs and policies lawmakers left out of a Jan. 19 continuing resolution that funds the government through Feb. 8 and that extended the Children’s Health Insurance Program by six years.

News Releases

Statement on Avalere Analysis of 340B Payment Policy in 2018 OPPS

Jan 29, 2018 || Staff

This badly misleading report makes no attempt to focus on or isolate the 340B drug payment policy. Rather, it masks the policy’s damaging impact by conflating it with other unrelated policy changes.

News Releases

Senate Must Finish Work to Protect Care for Low-Income Patients

Jan 18, 2018 || Staff

We commend the House for funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program, but regret lawmakers chose not to extend the same support to hospitals at the center of our health care safety net.

News Releases

Congress Must Act This Week on Medicaid DSH Cut Delay

Jan 17, 2018 || Staff

The harm from disproportionate share hospital cuts is imminent, but not unavoidable. Congress must act immediately to stop the cuts in its next government funding measure.

News Releases

Hospital Leaders Call on Congress to Halt Cuts to Safety Net

Jan 10, 2018 || Staff

The chief executives of 18 of the nation’s largest hospital systems that care for low-income patients asked congressional leaders for a two-year delay of Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payment cuts.

News Releases

Essential Hospitals Launch Campaign to Delay Medicaid DSH Cuts

Jan 8, 2018 || Staff

The association is using Capitol Hill advocacy, member mobilization, and advertising to halt current disproportionate share hospital (DSH) cuts and delay further cuts for at least two years.

News Releases

Hospital Groups to Continue to Pursue Lawsuit to Reverse Cuts for 340B Hospitals

Dec 29, 2017 || Staff

District court judge finds that the lawsuit was premature, but he does not rule on the merits of the claim by America’s Essential Hospitals, the American Hospital Association, and the Association of American Medical Colleges.

News Releases

Statement on Congressional Inaction on Medicaid DSH Cuts

Dec 21, 2017 || Staff

Hospitals cannot sustain these losses without scaling back services or closing altogether, especially as the ranks of the uninsured swell with the end of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. Congress must immediately halt the cuts when lawmakers return in January.

News Releases

Congress: Reject Tax Reforms that Harm Patients, Hospitals

Dec 5, 2017 || Staff

The House and Senate tax reform bills would destabilize hospitals that care for those who face financial hardships by triggering deep cuts to social programs.

News Releases

Statement on Bipartisan Legislation to Stop Cuts to 340B Hospitals

Nov 15, 2017 || Staff

America’s Essential Hospitals thanks Reps. David McKinley (R-WV) and Mike Thompson (D-CA) for legislation that would place a permanent moratorium on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services policy to cut $1.6 billion in Medicare Part B drug reimbursement from 340B hospitals.

News Releases

Hospital Groups File Lawsuit to Stop Significant Payment Cuts for 340B Hospitals

Nov 13, 2017 || Staff

The lawsuit argues that the 340B provisions of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ outpatient prospective payment system rule violate the Social Security Act and should be set aside under the Administrative Procedure Act as unlawful and in excess of the HHS Secretary’s statutory authority.

News Releases

Statement on House Passage of CHIP Reauthorization, Medicaid DSH Cuts Delay

Nov 3, 2017 || Staff

The vote moves us a step closer to protecting funding for hospitals that care for uninsured and underinsured patients and to preserving access to care for our nation’s children. America’s Essential Hospitals now calls on the Senate to act in bipartisan fashion to do the same.

News Releases

Statement on 2018 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule

Nov 2, 2017 || Staff

The final rule puts expansion of services further out of reach for underserved communities and threatens access to care where access is needed most.

News Releases

Statement on 2018 Outpatient Prospective Payment System Final Rule

Nov 1, 2017 || Staff

The final rule’s cuts to Medicare Part B drug payments to 340B hospitals jeopardizes health care access for millions of low-income individuals and families nationwide and weakens the ability of essential hospitals to provide vital services to communities.

News Releases

Statement on House Measure to Delay Medicaid DSH Cuts

Oct 30, 2017 || Staff

America’s Essential Hospitals thanks House leaders for supporting vulnerable patients and essential hospitals with a proposed two-year delay of Medicaid disproportionate share hospital funding cuts.

News Releases

Statement on Alexander-Murray Bipartisan Health Care Bill

Oct 23, 2017 || Staff

The end of cost-sharing reduction subsidies poses an imminent threat to those who depend on marketplace plans. America’s Essential Hospitals thanks Sens. Alexander and Murray for their bipartisan leadership to create more certainty in the individual market.

News Releases

Statement on Administration Decision to End Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments

Oct 13, 2017 || Staff

Ending the government’s cost-sharing subsidies to insurers in the Affordable Care Act marketplace won’t fix the law’s shortcomings or move us closer to a workable alternative. It only will destabilize the insurance market and drive costs higher for patients who can least afford increases.

News Releases

Association Thanks Lawmakers for Support of Medicaid DSH Cuts Delay

Oct 5, 2017 || Staff

America’s Essential Hospitals appreciates the one-year delay of cuts to disproportionate share hospital payments and will continue to work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for a two-year delay to provide greater stability for hospitals and more time to find a long-term fix.

News Releases

Statement on Energy and Commerce Mark-Up of the HEALTHY KIDS Act

Oct 3, 2017 || Staff

America’s Essential Hospitals applauds the HEALTHY KIDS Act for extending the Children’s Health Insurance Program but remains concerned the bill’s disproportionate share hospital provision will make it harder to find a sustainable solution to uncompensated care.

News Releases

More than 220 Bipartisan Lawmakers Call for Medicaid DSH Cut Delay

Sep 28, 2017 || Staff

The signers of the letter to Ryan and Pelosi include 162 Democrats and 59 Republicans from 41 states. They also include five House committee chairs and 13 committee ranking members.

News Releases

Statement on Senate’s Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson Decision

Sep 26, 2017 || Staff

We hope the Senate’s decision to stop the rush to a vote on the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson proposal opens the door to renewed bipartisan talks on ways to fix the Affordable Care Act.

News Releases

Statement on Graham-Cassidy Health Plan Proposal

Sep 15, 2017 || Staff

The proposal appears to significantly restrict federal health care funding through per-capita caps and block grants; shift costs to states, patients, providers, and taxpayers; and achieve the same result as earlier bills: millions left uninsured.

News Releases

Essential Hospital Leaders Call on Congress to Stop Medicaid DSH Cuts

Sep 13, 2017 || Staff

In a letter to House and Senate committees, leaders of more than 250 hospitals and health systems nationally urge Congress to stop a $2 billion disproportionate share hospital cut scheduled for Oct. 1 and to delay cuts for at least two years.

News Releases

Statement on CMS Decision to Cancel Cardiac Episode Payment Models

Aug 15, 2017 || Staff

The association says providers selected for the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) demonstration are only just now adapting to the new payment and delivery approaches and need more time before facing another demonstration.

News Releases

Statement on Senate Rejection of Health Care Freedom Act

Jul 28, 2017 || Staff

With the Senate defeat of the repeal bill, America’s Essential Hospitals urges lawmakers to turn their attention to averting Oct. 1 cuts to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments and to renewing their commitment to CHIP and other elements of the safety net.

News Releases

Statement on Senate ‘Skinny’ ACA Repeal Legislation

Jul 27, 2017 || Staff

Estimates are the skinny option would cause 16 million people to lose coverage and drive up uncompensated care at hospitals.

News Releases

Statement on Senate Vote To Move Forward with ACA Repeal Legislation

Jul 25, 2017 || Staff

All plans considered so far by Congress would end with the same terrible result: at least 22 million more uninsured people, devastating cuts to Medicaid, and higher costs for patients and taxpayers.

News Releases

Statement on Senate Plan to Repeal ACA with Two-Year Delay

Jul 18, 2017 || Staff

The repeal-and-delay strategy would leave millions of lives in limbo and create uncertainty that would destabilize insurance markets and paralyze hospitals.

News Releases

Statement on OPPS, Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rules

Jul 13, 2017 || Staff

The Medicare payment rules propose deeply damaging policies that would harm vulnerable patients and essential hospitals by cutting 340B Drug Pricing Program savings and needed support for outpatient services in underserved communities.

News Releases

Statement on Revised Better Care Reconciliation Act

Jul 13, 2017 || Staff

The revised Better Care Reconciliation Act leaves untouched the most destructive provisions of the original bill: those that would gut the Medicaid program and strip affordable coverage from millions of people.

News Releases

America’s Essential Hospitals Announces New Board Leadership

Jul 1, 2017 || Staff

New member leaders for America’s Essential Hospitals and its research and quality arm, Essential Hospitals Institute, today officially began their new roles overseeing the organizations’ work.

News Releases

Statement on CBO Score of the Better Care Reconciliation Act

Jun 26, 2017 || Staff

The Congressional Budget Office score of the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act confirms what most observers expected: The bill is as damaging as its deeply unpopular House counterpart, the American Health Care Act.

News Releases

Hospital Association Recognizes Five Members for Quality, Population Health

Jun 22, 2017 || Staff

The Gage Awards honor creative and successful programs at essential hospitals that enhance patient care and meet community needs.

News Releases

Statement on Senate Repeal and Replace Legislation

Jun 22, 2017 || Staff

Senate leaders have put ideology ahead of lives with a plan that puts health and home at risk for millions of working Americans.

News Releases

America’s Essential Hospitals Promotes Legislation to Reduce Disparities

Jun 13, 2017 || Staff

The Eliminating Health Disparities Act of 2017, introduced in April by Rep. Ben Ray Luján, would allow states to apply for Medicaid state plan amendments to establish a Health Disparities Elimination Program.

News Releases

Statement on the Administration’s Fiscal 2018 Budget Proposal

May 23, 2017 || Staff

The budget proposal would harm the people who need help most: low-income working Americans, struggling families, the poor elderly and disabled, and millions of others.

News Releases

Statement on House Passage of the American Health Care Act

May 4, 2017 || Staff

The bill the House approved today would leave tens of millions of Americans uninsured and reduce benefits and increase costs for millions more – including the sick.

News Releases

Statement on American Health Care Act High-Risk Pool Amendment

May 3, 2017 || Staff

The amendment to increase funding for American Health Care Act high-risk pools applies a bandage to a mortally wounded patient and changes in no material way the harm this bill would cause.

News Releases

America’s Essential Hospitals Applauds Bill to Remedy Physician Shortages

May 2, 2017 || Staff

The bipartisan Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act supports our nation’s teaching hospitals and the next generation of health care professionals.

News Releases

Statement on American Health Care Act Amendment

Apr 26, 2017 || Staff

Attempts to revive the American Health Care Act with changes that make a deeply damaging bill even worse are misguided and disappointing.

News Releases

Statement on FY 2018 Inpatient Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule

Apr 14, 2017 || Staff

Association calls the fiscal year 2018 Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule a welcome first step toward broader recognition in federal health policy of challenges that affect the health of vulnerable patients.

News Releases

Statement on House Decision to Withdraw American Health Care Act

Mar 24, 2017 || Staff

Congressional leaders made the right choice today to withdraw their legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act. With health care coverage for tens of millions of Americans in the balance, this was a sound decision.

News Releases

Statement on Proposal to End Essential Benefits Requirements Under AHCA

Mar 22, 2017 || Staff

House Republican leaders are putting the health of millions of Americans at greater risk with each change they make to placate party holdouts and pass the American Health Care Act.

News Releases

Statement on Administration’s FY 2018 Budget Proposal

Mar 16, 2017 || Staff -

America’s Essential Hospitals says the cumulative effect of the proposal and the American Health Care Act could be to undermine the ability of essential hospitals to meet their commitment to patients and communities.

News Releases

Statement on Confirmation of Seema Verma as CMS Administrator

Mar 14, 2017 || Staff -

America’s Essential Hospitals recognizes the new CMS administrator for her experience with health care for low-income and other vulnerable people and helping states tailor Medicaid to meet specific program and policy goals.

News Releases

Statement on CBO Score of American Health Care Act

Mar 13, 2017 || Staff -

America’s Essential Hospitals says the Congressional Budget Office analysis of coverage losses under the American Health Care Act underscores the urgent need for Congress to rethink its strategy on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.

News Releases

Statement on House Reconciliation Legislation

Mar 6, 2017 || Staff -

While the House bill would bring welcome relief from damaging cuts to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments, the association remains deeply concerned about provisions to end Medicaid expansion and impose per-capita caps on the program.

News Releases

America’s Essential Hospitals Launches Second Phase of Population Health Work

Feb 27, 2017 || Carl Graziano

The project will support essential hospitals in building a foundation for population health improvement activities, assembling and aligning needed resources, and achieving community-integrated health care.

News Releases

Statement on Draft Republican Plan to Replace the Affordable Care Act

Feb 16, 2017 || Staff

Today’s reports of a draft policy brief describing how House Republicans would replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) raise significant concerns about whether the plan could protect the health of low-income and other struggling Americans.

News Releases

Statement on Confirmation of Health and Human Services Secretary

Feb 10, 2017 || Carl Graziano

America’s Essential Hospitals tells the newly confirmed Secretary Price that it looks forward to working with him to ensure essential hospitals can sustain their commitment to vulnerable patients and underserved communities.

News Releases

Essential Hospitals Face Significant Losses Without Comparable ACA Replacement

Feb 9, 2017 || Staff

If Congress fails to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with a comparable plan, coverage losses and scheduled cuts to hospital funding would total up to $40.5 billion nationally for hospitals that fill a safety-net role, a new analysis shows.

News Releases

Research Project To Explore PCOR/CER in Essential Hospitals

Feb 2, 2017 || Carl Graziano

The 18-month project of the association’s Essential Hospitals Institute will explore whether and to what extent hospitals use patient-centered outcomes and comparative effectiveness research to improve care delivery.

News Releases

Statement on Withdrawal of 340B Mega-Guidance

Jan 31, 2017 || Staff

The decision preserves the 340B program’s valuable benefits to low-income and other disadvantaged people, and the hospitals on which they depend.

News Releases

Response to Administration Plan To Fund Medicaid with Block Grants

Jan 23, 2017 || Staff

We welcome a constructive discussion about how to improve Medicaid without jeopardizing access to health care services for vulnerable people. But proposals to convert Medicaid to block grants so far fail to cross even this basic threshold.

News Releases

America’s Essential Hospitals Praises Senate Passage of 21st Century Cures

Dec 7, 2016 || Staff

With their vote, senators have helped level the playing field for essential hospitals by risk adjusting readmissions measures that unfairly penalize hospitals for factors outside their control.

News Releases

Statement on House Passage of 21st Century Cures

Nov 30, 2016 || Staff

Essential hospitals thank House lawmakers for voting to protect access to health care services for vulnerable patients and underserved communities by accounting for patients’ social and economic status in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP).

News Releases

Statement on Health and Human Services Nominations

Nov 29, 2016 || Staff

America’s Essential Hospitals is pleased President-Elect Trump has made health care experience a priority in his choices for Secretary of Health and Human Services and administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

News Releases

New Road Map Guides Hospitals on Journey to Improve Population Health

Nov 16, 2016 || Staff

The publication highlights which approaches work best, what barriers essential hospitals face, and how to transfer this work to other communities.

News Releases

Statement on 2016 Presidential Election Results

Nov 9, 2016 || Staff

The association calls on the new administration to sustain support for the safety net and reject changes that reduce spending at the expense of coverage and access.

News Releases

Statement on 2017 Outpatient Prospective Payment System Final Rule

Nov 1, 2016 || Staff

While the final rule provides some relief from onerous proposed payment policies, it continues to put underserved communities at risk of further declines in access to care, the association says.

News Releases

America’s Essential Hospitals Forges Strategic Partnership with Premier Inc.

Aug 1, 2016 || Staff

America’s Essential Hospitals and Premier Inc., a leading health care improvement company, have formed a partnership to help essential hospitals improve health care quality, reduce delivery costs and succeed in alternative payment models that promote population health.

News Releases

Star Ratings’ Release Unfortunate and Counterproductive

Jul 27, 2016 || Staff

We are disappointed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) chose to publicly release overall hospital star ratings today, when so many questions remain about the data behind the ratings and their value to consumers.

News Releases

Statement on Outpatient Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule

Jul 6, 2016 || Staff

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ narrow interpretation of Section 603 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 threatens to reduce access to badly needed health care services in the nation’s most underserved communities.

News Releases

America’s Essential Hospitals Announces New Board Leadership

Jul 1, 2016 || Staff

New officers and at-large member directors take positions on boards for association and its quality and research institute.

About America’s Essential Hospitals

America’s Essential Hospitals is the leading association and champion for hospitals and health systems dedicated to high-quality care for all, including the most vulnerable. Since 1981, America’s Essential Hospitals has initiated, advanced, and preserved programs and policies that help these hospitals ensure access to care. We support members with advocacy, policy development, research, and education.