Highlights from the 2024 AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference

AHA leaders discuss 2024 rural legislative priorities, release new advocacy agenda 
AHA Feb. 13 released its 2024 Rural Advocacy Agenda highlighting federal priorities for rural communities. Lisa Kidder Hrobsky, AHA’s senior vice president for legislative and political affairs, was joined by Travis Robey, AHA’s vice president of political affairs, and Shannon Wu, AHA’s senior associate director of payment policy, to brief session attendees on AHA’s 2024 rural advocacy efforts within the context of its broader advocacy agenda for the field. 

The 2024 rural advocacy agenda covers a range of legislative priorities essential to rural hospitals, including:

• Supporting flexible payment options such as the Medicare-dependent Hospital and Low-volume Adjustment programs, which AHA urges making permanent.
• Ensuring fair and adequate reimbursement for rural hospitals in areas like telehealth, infrastructure financing, and maternal and obstetric care.
•  Bolstering the workforce by increasing the number of Medicare-funded residency slots to address health care professional shortages and encouraging incentives for clinicians to practice in rural areas.
•  Opposing any efforts to undermine the 340B Drug Pricing Program, particularly as it relates to contract pharmacy arrangements.
• Holding commercial insurers accountable by ensuring critical access hospitals receive cost-based care reimbursement for Medicare Advantage patients, increasing oversight and accountability of health plans to ensure prompt payment, and improving the prior authorization process.