AHA shares workforce bill concerns with Senate committee

AHA Sept. 20 urged leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to remove from the Bipartisan Primary Care and Health Workforce Expansion Act proposals that would eliminate facility fees for telehealth and evaluation and management services, require a separate identification number for each off-campus outpatient department of a provider, and prevent providers from negotiating reasonable agreements with commercial health insurance plans.
 
“While we appreciate that the bill contains numerous policies to address health care workforce shortages, we are concerned that these investments come directly at the expense of the hospitals, health systems and caregivers that need this support in the first place,” AHA wrote . “…These policies would result in billions of dollars in additional cuts to hospitals and health systems, which would exacerbate the current challenges facing the field and reduce access to care, especially for patients in rural and other underserved areas.”
 
The committee plans to markup the legislation Sept. 21.