Letter to Chip Roy in Support of Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020

May 26, 2020

The Honorable Chip Roy
U.S. House of Representatives
1319 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative Roy:

On behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, our clinical partners – including more than 270,000 affiliated physicians, 2 million nurses and other caregivers – and the 43,000 health care leaders who belong to our professional membership groups, the American Hospital Association (AHA) writes in support of your legislation, H.R. 6886, the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020.

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) can be a lifeline for hospitals and other organizations that are suffering significant economic loss as a result of the COVID-19 public health emergency. This is particularly true of small hospitals that are simultaneously building costly surge capacity while experiencing significant declines in revenue as a result of cancelled nonemergent care. This program could mean the difference between a small hospital making payroll and retaining access to care in the community or closing.

Your legislation provides needed flexibility to allow this program to work for hospitals and their communities. To further improve the PPP, it is critical that Congress moves to final adoption of provisions in the House-passed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act that explicitly make eligible critical access hospitals regardless of bankruptcy status, and waive the affiliation rules for any nonprofit.

Thank you for your leadership on this issue. We look forward to working with you to make further improvements in the PPP to support our health care system in this evolving crisis.

Sincerely,

/s/

Thomas P. Nickels
Executive Vice President