In a letter submitted to the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee for a hearing this afternoon on “Why Health Care is Unaffordable: The Fallout of Democrats’ Inflation on Patients and Small Businesses,” AHA shared how rising labor and other costs for hospitals and health systems are exacerbating workforce shortages and delaying patient access to care. 

“America’s hospitals and health systems are facing a crisis: a tsunami of financial challenges that are exerting tremendous pressure on their ability to deliver care,” AHA wrote. “Specifically, financial constraints on hospitals impede their ability to recruit and retain the workforce they need to maintain access to care. Expenses continue to rise across the board, with hospitals facing increasing costs for labor, drugs, purchased services, personal protective equipment and other medical and safety supplies needed to care for patients.” 

According to a recent report by Kaufman Hall, “staggering growth in labor expenses in 2022 alone were projected to increase hospitals’ labor costs by $135 billion,” AHA notes. These workforce challenges “are being mirrored throughout the entire health care delivery continuum,” which can delay hospital discharges to other care settings, AHA said. These delays “put incredible strain on hospitals and health systems as they must bear the costs of caring for patients during those excess days without appropriate reimbursement."

Related News Articles

Perspective
As we’ve seen from recent media reports, Congress — and especially the House right now — continues to struggle to put together a plan to keep the government…
Headline
AHA Sept. 20 urged leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to remove from the Bipartisan Primary Care and Health Workforce…
Headline
Certain policy decisions and challenges in implementing the No Surprises Act have undermined the unbiased and timely process Congress intended and contributed…
Headline
The AHA and American Medical Association Sept. 18 urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to affirm a district court decision that invalidated a No…
Headline
Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Sept. 12 introduced the Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees Act, AHA-supported legislation that…
Perspective
With only 11 days that the House and Senate are in session together before the fiscal year concludes, much of the attention in Washington is on how Congress…