Legislation and Legislative Advocacy
The American Hospital Association (AHA) shares resources on health care legislation being considered by the U.S. House and Senate and legislative advocacy opportunities for hospitals and health systems.
The AHA voiced support for the Opioid Treatment Access Act (H.R. 6279), bipartisan legislation that would take steps to facilitate patients’ access to methadone treatment for opioid use disorder.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dec.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dec.
The Department of Health and Human Services through Sept. 30 has reduced by more than 75% its backlog of Medicare appeals at the Administrative Law Judge level, according to a status report the agency provided Dec. 21, 2021 to a federal court.
“By the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, a…
The Senate Finance Committee released parts of its updated legislative text for the $1.7 trillion Build Back Better Act, and, as urged by the AHA, the bill does not contain Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital cuts that were included the House-passed version of the bill.
The AHA appreciates that the Senate, on a bipartisan basis, has joined the House in halting harmful and imminent Medicare cuts to hospitals and physicians.
The House passed the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act (H.R. 1667), AHA-supported legislation that would authorize grants for programs that offer behavioral health services for front-line health care workers.
The House voted 222-212 to pass a legislative package that would extend the moratorium on the 2% Medicare sequester cuts until April 1, 2022, and reduce the cuts from 2% to 1% from April 1 through June 30, 2022.
The AHA is pleased that the House has recognized that now is not the time to make cuts to hospitals and physicians under the Medicare program.
A legislative package could be voted on in the House that would stop upcoming Medicare cuts to hospitals, physicians and other providers that are scheduled to kick in early next year.