The American Hospital Affiliation (AHA) urged the majority and minority leaders of the Home and Senate to behave on key priorities earlier than the top of the yr in feedback on November 12. AHA requested Congress proceed offering aid from Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital Fee cuts and proceed the Medicare-dependent Hospitals and Low-volume Adjustment applications set to run out on December 31.
The AHA additionally urged Congress to reject site-neutral fee proposals and cross the Bettering Seniors’ Well timed Entry to Care Act. This laws would lower prior authorization procedures within the Medicare Benefit program.
Moreover, AHA requested that the hospital-at-home waiver be prolonged by means of 2029, scheduled doctor reimbursement cuts mitigated, and the Security from Violence for Healthcare Workers Act handed.
“Physicians have handled over 20 years of conversion issue decrements, in addition to important staffing shortages and rising inflation in recent times. The scheduled 2.8 p.c fee discount within the 2025 Doctor Payment Schedule would lead to a major danger to sufferers’ entry to care,” AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack mentioned in an announcement.
“Hospitals and well being techniques are experiencing important monetary pressures that problem their capacity to supply 24/7 take care of the sufferers and communities they serve,” mentioned AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack in an announcement. “Elevated bills for medicine and provides, inflation and the mounting burden attributable to sure business well being insurer denial and delay practices proceed to pressure hospitals and well being techniques. On the identical time, underpayments in reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid don’t preserve tempo with these mounting prices and exacerbate the issues hospitals are having.”