Hospital leaders urge Congress to protect care

More than 150 hospital leaders today gathered on Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to reject cuts to payments for hospital care that would limit patients’ access to care. During an AHA Advocacy Day briefing in Washington, D.C., which also was webcast, AHA leaders provided the latest details on negotiations between House Republican and Democratic leaders, who are working on an agreement to permanently replace the Medicare physician sustainable growth rate formula before the latest patch expires March 31. After the briefing, hospital leaders met with their lawmakers and staff and told them to reject payment cuts for hospital outpatient care (so-called site-neutral cuts), graduate medical education, bad debt, critical access hospitals and inpatient rehabilitation facilities. In addition, hospital leaders pressed lawmakers to extend crucial programs important to rural health care; provide relief from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ two-midnight and readmissions policies; and reject any further delays in the transition to the ICD-10 coding system.