IHA Alert: Urge Congress to Address Hospital Priorities in Lame Duck Session

December 1, 2020

Congress is working to pass funding bills for the federal government and may consider additional legislation, including a COVID-19 relief package before the end of the year. Please reach out to your U.S. Senators and Representatives now to urge them to support critical hospital priorities in end-of-year legislation.

COVID-19 Priorities
IHA-supported COVID-19 priorities include:

  • Additional Support for the Provider Relief Fund (PRF). Congress should direct additional, direct relief funds to hospitals, which are not only coping with a public health crisis, but also a financial crisis.
  • Changes to PRF Reporting Requirements. Congress should require the Department of Health and Human Services to fully reinstate the June Reporting Requirements (which would among other things, allow hospitals to use a budgeted-to-actual comparison for calculating lost revenues), and allow targeted PRF distributions to be transferred within health systems.
  • Suspension of Medicare Sequestration. Congress should extend the suspension of the 2% Medicare sequestration cut through the public health emergency designation.
  • Limited Liability Protections. Congress should enact a limited waiver of liability for hospitals and health care professionals during the nationally designated COVID-19 emergency.
  • Permanent Expansion of Telehealth. Congress should permanently extend certain flexibilities permitted during the pandemic, including by lifting geographic and originating site restrictions.

A complete list of IHA COVID-19 legislative priorities is available here. 

Additional Priorities for the “Lame Duck” Session
Congress may consider attaching additional health care provisions to an end-of-year package, including:

  • Surprise Medical Billing. Congress should not include harmful rate-setting proposals in end-of-year legislation. IHA strongly supports federal action to protect patients from surprise medical bills, and we continue to urge Congress to advance a solution–similar to the one used in Illinois–that allows providers and health plans to negotiate fair reimbursement. IHA strongly opposes rate-setting proposals, which would drive down reimbursement for hospitals and limit access to care. (An IHA issue brief is available here, and an AHA brief is available here.) 
  • Medicaid DSH Cuts. Congress should take action to eliminate cuts to the Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) program, which are scheduled to take effect in the next fiscal year.

To assist with reaching out to your federal representatives, a template letter is available here. Alternatively, emails may be sent by clicking here. Please send a copy of your letters to IHA.

Questions:
Please contact IHA.