On May 8, the House Committee on Ways and Means advanced
legislation during a
markup that would fund several WHA federal health care priorities for extensions needed at the end of the year, including:
- Continued Medicare coverage of telehealth extensions for 2 additional years (through the end of 2026).
- The Acute Hospital Care at Home (Hospital at Home) program for 5 additional years (through the end of 2029).
- Medicare-Dependent and Low-Volume Hospital Adjustment programs for 9 additional months through 9/30/25 (the end of the next fiscal year).
All three of these are priorities WHA
highlighted during its
April trip to Washington DC as part of AHA’s Annual Meeting. Importantly, the legislation funds these priorities without hospital site-neutral payment cuts or other hospital cuts – they would be funded primarily via reforms to pharmacy benefit managers.
Congress is not expected to act on these health care items until a larger package develops after the November elections during the lame duck session. While there is a long road ahead before that time, this legislation will serve as an important marker in the House as negotiations develop later in the year to fund these priorities. WHA will keep up advocacy efforts in the meantime.
In addition to these priorities, the committee also advanced legislation that would:
- Provide cost-based reimbursement to ambulance services operated by critical access hospitals that exist under the 15-mile mountainous terrain or secondary roads criteria.
- Authorize grants for financially challenged rural hospitals for the purpose of minor renovations, care delivery training, staff hiring and retention, and equipment acquisition.
- Ensure that 10 percent of the recently approved 1,200 additional Medicare GME slots go to truly rural hospitals, and not hospitals that are reclassified as rural hospitals.
- Move back the eligibility date for a closed hospital to convert to a rural emergency hospital from December 27, 2020 to January 1, 2014.
- Allow nursing homes that have received citations and civil monetary penalties above a certain amount to continue offering a certified nurse aide (CNA) training program so long as the citations are for reasons unrelated to direct resident care.
Contact WHA Vice President of Federal and State Relations
Jon Hoelter with questions.