ACTION NEEDED
Call or email your U.S. representative on the House Energy & Commerce Committee to share the financial challenges facing your hospital or health system and the effects on access for their communities. The committee is holding a May 17 hearing on several issues that would impact hospitals.
Use the online directory to find your U.S. representative and consult this list of California representatives on the Energy & Commerce Committee.
TIMING
ASAP — The committee hearing is scheduled for May 17. Members of the Energy & Commerce Committee must hear from you no later than Tuesday, May 16.
RESOURCES
- Contact Info for California House Energy & Commerce Committee Members
- California Disproportionate Share Hospital Task Force Letter
- Messaging for House Energy & Commerce Committee Hearing Topics
BACKGROUND
The House Energy & Commerce Committee has announced that on May 17 it will mark up a series of health care bills important to hospitals and health systems. The committee has not announced specific bills for consideration, but CHA expects it to discuss three problematic issues (site-neutral payments, 340B Drug Pricing Program, and physician-owned hospitals) and one that CHA strongly supports – a delay in Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payment cuts.
Given the financial challenges facing California’s hospitals, policy changes to Medicare payments, the 340B program, and hospital ownership could be devastating to individual hospitals’ ability to continue to provide care to their communities.