America’s Essential Hospitals last week urged a bipartisan group of senators to explore ways essential hospitals can partner with rural communities to ease workforce shortages and to target new residency slots to underserved non-rural, as well as rural, communities.
In its response to draft policy proposals by Senate Committee on Finance Chair Ron Ryden (D-Ore.) and seven other committee members, the association noted that many of its members operate clinics in rural areas or partner with rural hospitals to provide graduate medical education (GME). To target GME slots to underserved communities, Congress should consider the hospital payer mix of essential health systems, as defined in the bipartisan Reinforcing Essential Health Systems for Communities Act (H.R. 7397).
H.R. 7397, which identifies a subset of hospitals in both urban and rural areas that serve a high share of Medicaid, Medicare, and uninsured patients, is a recent key advance in more than a decade of work by America’s Essential Hospitals to establish a federal definition of essential hospitals.
Hearing and Markup Last Week
At a House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health hearing on value-based care, lawmakers and witnesses expressed disappointment in the fee-for-service model, arguing that it tends to put financial incentives over care quality. Some expressed concern with the lack of access to value-based care in rural communities, pointing to administrative burdens, staffing challenges, exclusion from federal demonstration models, and volume thresholds, among other barriers. Members and witnesses also said consolidation, bankruptcy, and health system closures due to private financial interests also have had negative impacts.
The House Committee on Ways and Means also held a markup to consider four health care bills related to providing seniors with the necessary medication, tests, and devices. The committee passed all four: The Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act; the American Medical Innovation and Investment Act; the Ensuring Patient Access to Critical Breakthrough Products Act of 2023; and the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2023.
Committee Activity This Week
Both the Senate and House are out on recess this week for the July Fourth holiday.
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