America’s Essential Hospitals welcomed more than 70 essential hospital advocates to Washington, D.C., this week for the association’s semi-annual legislative fly-in, Policy Assembly.
Programming Monday featured remarks by association member and staff leaders, presentations on the history of Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) funding and the policy state of play in Washington, and discussion panels of Senate health policy staff and staff representing the House Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus.
Hospital advocates journeyed to Capitol Hill Tuesday to share association priorities with lawmakers, 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.
Other Hill Activity
As part of their ongoing oversight of the Biden administration, congressional Republicans last week asked Department of Health and Human Services officials for details on how they would “allocate, apply, and monitor” $3 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding to combat rising drug prices. The Feb. 22 letter, from GOP leaders on House and Senate committees with health care policy jurisdiction, called the law’s drug pricing provisions “misguided price controls that pose serious risks for current and future patients, as well as for our international leadership in medical innovation.”
Also last week, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La,) told POLITICO that he plans to introduce legislation to address the health care workforce shortage. He provided no details but indicated the bill could draw on ideas from a Feb. 16 hearing by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), on which Cassidy sits as the ranking Republican.
On the Schedule this Week
Both the Senate and House returned for session Feb. 27. On Thursday, March 2, at 10 am ET, the HELP Committee will hold a hearing titled, “Community Health Centers: Saving Lives, Saving Money.”
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