AHA urges Congress to enact the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act (H.R. 1667) and prioritize funding to support the nation’s health care workforce needs during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Testimony
Every day, AHA staff take to Capitol Hill to tell the hospital story, working to educate Congress on key issues and the field’s concerns. We also advocate with federal regulators, provide expert testimony, and highlight the impact proposed changes could have and suggest alternative solutions. Below are the most recent statements the AHA has submitted for the record for congressional hearings or agency panels.
Latest
Since the first COVID-19 cases were diagnosed and the pandemic changed the ways in which patients were able to access traditional health care settings, providers were required to navigate significant challenges to ensure their services were still able to reach millions of patients. In response, Congress and the Administration granted various flexibilities intended to improve access and facilitate the delivery of safe, quality care. As health care providers reflect on lessons learned and plan a post-pandemic course for the future, it is evident that several of the flexibilities have enhanced the patient experience and led to better outcomes.
A strong and reliable medical supply chain is a critical and integral component to delivering safe and effective high quality care to patients; however, it has become increasingly clear that the level of fragility across our national medical supply chain is unsustainable and poses significant risk to hospitals and health systems, as well as the patients and communities they serve.
Being a member of a health system brings measurable benefits to patients and health system employees: lower health care costs, improved patient care, better access to health care providers, and increased investment in technology and equipment.
The increased use of telehealth since the start of the public health emergency (PHE) is producing high-quality outcomes for patients, closing longstanding workforce gaps and those that arose as a result of an overwhelmed, hardworking provider workforce, and protecting access for patients too vulnerable to risk infection. We urge Congress to consider how to ensure these flexibilities could remain in place for patients and health care providers beyond the PHE.
AHA Statement for Education & Labor, Workforce Protections Subcommittee on “Clearing the Air: Science-Based Strategies to Protect Workers from COVID-19 Infections”
AHA Statement before the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, on The Future of Telehealth: COVID-19 is Changing the Delivery of Virtual Care.
John Riggi, AHA senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk, testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on defending communities from cyber threats during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AHA’s statement for the record to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means for the May 27, 2020 hearing, “The Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 on Communities of Color.”
Statement
of the
American Hospital Association
for the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
AHA testimony before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the Lower Health Care Costs Act.
Tom Nickels testifies before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health on surprise medical billing.
AHA Statement before the House Committee on Budget on Key Design Components and Considerations for Establishing a Single-Payer Health Care System
AHA testimony before the House Committee on Ways and Means
Subcommittee on Health on Hearing on Protecting Patients from Surprise Medical Bills
AHA statement before the Committee on Ways and Means of the U.S. House of Representatives on : Overcoming Racial Disparities and Social Determinants in the Maternal Mortality Crisis.
Statement
of the
American Hospital Association
for the
Committee on Rules
of the
U.S. House of Representatives
American Hospital Association Statement
Before Committee on Education and Labor Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions
AHA Statement Before the House Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Exploring the Effects of Consolidation and Anticompetitive Conduct in Health Care Markets
Testimony for House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, October 11, 2017.