IHA Alert: Urge Congress to Support Hospital Priorities in Next COVID Legislation

February 4, 2021

FEDERAL ADVOCACY ALERT

ACTION REQUESTED:  Contact your representatives in the U.S. House and Senate and urge them to include urgent hospital priorities in the next COVID-19 legislation.  To look up your U.S. Representatives and Senators and their contact information, click here, go to the “Find Officials” section, and fill in your local address information.  A template letter/email is available here.

BACKGROUND:  Congress is working to pass a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 proposal put forward by President Biden. House and Senate committees are working now to draft specific sections of the bill.  As proposed, there are no hospital-specific priorities included, and IHA is urging Illinois lawmakers to ensure frontline providers are not left out as we recover from the fall/winter surge, which was more intense, longer lasting and geographically widespread than anticipated.  Among our highest priorities are:

  • Additional financial support through the Provider Relief Fund;
  • Extension of the moratorium on Medicare sequester cuts through the duration of the public health emergency designation (H.R. 315); and
  • Delay of Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payment program loan repayment and consideration of loan forgiveness.

A complete list of IHA’s COVID-19 legislative priorities is available here. Please contact IHA with questions.

TALKING POINTS:

  • Hospitals are grateful for the resources and flexibilities Congress and the federal government have provided to date, however, additional federal support is urgently needed.
  • In Illinois, recent surges have been more intense and geographically widespread and have lasted longer than anticipated, drastically depleting hospital resources.
  • At the same time, hospitals continue to incur extraordinary expenses to provide care, support the healthcare workforce and purchase needed supplies and equipment.
  • For many Illinois hospitals, longer inpatient and intensive care unit (ICU) stays are utilizing significantly more resources.Yet, in the case of public payers, these longer inpatient stays rarely result in higher reimbursement amounts.
  • As Congress considers the next COVID-19 package, [Hospital Name] respectfully requests your support for additional relief for hospitals, including:
    • Additional financial support through the Provider Relief Fund;
    • Extension of the moratorium on Medicare sequester cuts through the duration of the public health emergency designation; and
    • Delay of Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payment program loan repayment and consideration of loan forgiveness.
  • As our state labors to recover from dire economic and societal devastation brought about by COVID-19, it is vital that our hospitals–and the critical community care they deliver–are secure.We cannot restore our state’s economy without the healthcare safety net that hospitals provide, and accordingly, we urge Congress to pass additional COVID-19 relief.