Congress returns to Washington, D.C., next week after its summer recess, but lawmakers are expected to have a busy fall with a plethora of issues they need to address.
The top priority is passing a stopgap budget bill by Sept. 30 to keep the economy afloat and avoid a government shutdown. While a failure to agree on a budget is not the image lawmakers want to project to the public ahead of the November elections, it also means leaders have a lot of work to do amid deep divisions over spending.
This divide extends to health care, as lawmakers from both parties have different visions for American health care.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to filter out the political noise and get policymakers to focus on the few pressing issues that “must be done.”
An action alert will be published soon highlighting these urgent issues that may see action in the potential lame-duck session of Congress after the election. These issues include:
- Extends key rural programs that are expiring at the end of the year, including the Medicare Dependent Hospital Program and the Low Volume Adjustment Program.
- The expansion of telehealth and home health programs, innovative initiatives that have expanded access for millions of Americans and made it more convenient for patients to receive quality care, are set to end on Jan. 1.
- Ensure that payment reductions for hospital services, such as so-called “site-neutral adjustments” (which provide an appropriate differential for hospital outpatient services), are rejected.
- We will continue to stop hospital cuts due to disproportionate Medicaid sharing that begin to occur next year and threaten vital funding for hospitals that care for our nation’s most vulnerable people – children, the poor, the disabled, and the elderly.
- Addressing proposed cuts to Medicare payments for physician services.
Currently, our field is balancing two realities: on the one hand, challenges remain great: financial, regulatory, workforce, and other issues. At the same time, we are arguably at the dawn of an exciting new era of bold innovation, technological advancements, and expanding ways to advance the health of more people than ever before.
That’s why it’s essential that federal lawmakers understand the pressing challenges facing hospitals and health systems and make policy decisions that take into account what’s affecting access to care for the patients and communities they represent.
What you can do
- contact Sit down with your legislator and discuss the challenges your organization faces and why you need additional support.
- invite Invite your elected officials to visit your hospital and use the opportunity to highlight some of the great work your organization is doing to support patients and the community. AHA’s Action Alert provides tools and resources to help you in your advocacy efforts.
- Share Please share this message with your team members and your community so we can create an echo chamber around our key priorities.
Finding solutions and making changes is a conversation we need to have with elected officials whose views on health care will shape our field for years to come.
It is important that we come together and speak out now as part of our ongoing efforts to advance the health of America.
