With the state Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA) barreling toward singling out hospitals for even lower spending growth targets than the statewide goal — and federal legislators debating budget proposals that would decimate Medicaid and Medicare funding — CHA has developed two opportunities for hospitals to prepare for engagement on both of these critical issues.
Register here for the Feb. 14 webinar on federal policies.
Register here for the Feb. 19 webinar on OHCA.
The first, scheduled for tomorrow at 8 a.m. (PT), will help California hospital leaders advocate with their federal representatives on key policies related to a pending continuing budget resolution that must be passed by March 14. These include disproportionate share hospital cuts, telehealth and hospital-at-home policies, support for rural health care, and more.
The webinar will also provide information on a federal budget plan for 2026 that could include reductions in Medicaid funding, cuts to the Area Wage Index policy (which adjusts payments for high cost-of-living regions), site-neutral payment policies, curtailment of the 340B program, cuts to funding for insurance premium subsidies, and more.
Many of these policies could wreak havoc on California hospitals’ financial stability and, in many cases, would represent an existential threat for hospitals.
The second, scheduled for 8 a.m. (PT) Feb. 19, will help prepare hospitals to engage with OHCA on recent action that created a new hospital sector for restrictions on spending growth, as well as options the board has discussed to identify “high-cost” hospitals — those that could be among the first targeted with a maximum growth rate of less than 3.5%.
Early OHCA thinking on a list of high-cost hospitals is subject to change, but the board appears favorable toward identifying high-cost hospitals that fall in the top 10%-20% on both of two measures: commercial reimbursement and the degree to which a hospital’s commercial reimbursement covers its costs to a greater extent than Medicare does.
Spending targets of around 1.7% are being considered for these hospitals, though some OHCA board members have called for them to be even lower.
CHA continues to press on both of these fronts to protect hospital care in California, but your voice is needed now more than ever to be effective. Please join us for these sessions to support effective advocacy on serious threats to hospital care with far-reaching implications for patients.
