AHA voices support for Biden nominee for HHS assistant secretary.
Letters
Throughout the year, the AHA comments on a vast number of proposed and interim final rules put forth by the federal regulatory agencies. In addition, AHA communicates with federal legislators to convey the hospital field's position on potential legislative changes that would impact patients and patient care. Below are the most recent letters from the AHA to these bodies.
Latest
AHA voices support for the Technical Reset to Advance the Instruction of Nurses Act (S.1568), bipartisan legislation that would prevent a Medicare payment error from affecting nursing and allied health education programs and direct graduate medical education.
The AHA supports adding data classes and elements to future versions of the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability to capture standardized data on social determinants of health, but suggests prioritizing technical infrastructure development, incorporating lessons learned and continuing investments in real-world testing, the association told the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology yesterday.
AHA, hospital groups urge HHS to extend deadline for providers to use emergency relief funds and distribute remaining PRF resources promptly. The AHA and eight other hospital groups today urged the Department of Health and Human Services to extend the June 30 deadline for hospitals and other health care providers to use their COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund payments and distribute the remaining funds.
The AHA strongly urges the Census Bureau to continue to distinguish between different types of urban areas. Specifically, we urge it to continue to recognize urbanized areas as areas with 50,000 or more persons, and to recognize urban cluster as areas with at least 10,000 persons, but less than 50,000 persons.
AHA urges the Department of Health and Human Services to extend the deadline for hospitals and other health care providers to use their COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund payments until the end of the public health emergency.
AHA supports bipartisan legislation to ease hospital staff shortages. AHA today voiced support for the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (H.R. 2255/S. 1024), bipartisan legislation that would expedite the visa authorization process for qualified international nurses to support hospitals facing staffing shortages.
The American Hospital Association urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to apply its recently increased Medicare payment rates for COVID-19 vaccine administration services retroactively.
Members of the House and Senate Telehealth Caucus recently introduced the CONNECT for Health Act (S.1512/H.R. 2903), AHA-supported legislation that would permanently remove all geographic restrictions on Medicare telehealth services and expand originating sites to include home and other sites.
The AHA urge leaders of the House Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies to consider the potential effect their health care funding decisions for fiscal year 2022 will have on hospitals’ ability to care for their patients and communities and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and other ongoing challenges. View the entire letter under Key Resources.