FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Statement attributable to:
Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH
President and CEO
America’s Essential Hospitals
WASHINGTON — We thank congressional negotiators for promising language in their developing year-end spending package that would avert devastating cuts to Medicaid support for essential hospitals, extend telehealth flexibility and the hospital-at-home program, and take other steps to strengthen safety net care.
We enthusiastically support eliminating the looming $8 billion cut to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) funding and delaying the next fiscal year’s $8 billion cut. Our hospitals face enormous financial pressures due to their safety net mission, so cuts of this magnitude — two-thirds of all federal Medicaid DSH funding — simply would be unsustainable.
We also applaud a measure, consistent with our recommendation, to correct a harmful policy that removed the cost of care for dually eligible patients from the calculation of a hospital’s Medicaid DSH uncompensated care limit. This fix is crucial to the stability of our hospitals.
Other provisions in the package important to our hospitals and that we call on Congress to pass include, among others, reauthorization of the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act; extension of the Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities (SUPPORT) Act; and establishing studies on the costs of providing maternity, labor, and delivery services in hospitals that serve a high proportion of Medicaid beneficiaries, along with rural hospitals.
However, we are concerned about a provision that would require each hospital outpatient department to have a unique identifier and to bill using this separate identifier. This will be costly, burdensome, and resource-intensive, and it will affect staff workflows. Imposing this new requirement will force hospitals to invest significant time and money into updating billing and IT systems and pull an already stretched workforce away from providing care.
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About America’s Essential Hospitals
America’s Essential Hospitals is the leading association and champion for hospitals dedicated to equitable, high-quality care for all, including those who face social and financial barriers to care. Since 1981, America’s Essential Hospitals has advanced policies and programs that promote health, health care access, and equity. We support our more than 300 members with advocacy, policy development, research, education, and leadership development. Communities depend on essential hospitals for care across the continuum, health care workforce training, research, public health and health equity, and other services. Essential hospitals innovate and adapt to lead all of health care toward better outcomes and value.
Contact:
Carl Graziano
cgraziano@essentialhospitals.org
202.585.0102
Author