HAP's Latest News

A new Commonwealth Fund survey into the disparate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to highlight the long-standing inequities by race, ethnicity, and income. The analysis also shows that the experience of economic hardships and mental health concerns during the pandemic varies by race, gender, and income.

The outcome of this year’s election will be critical to those who work in health care because those who are elected will make important decisions that affect health care as well as Pennsylvania’s hospitals. HAP is supporting the American Hospital Association’s “We Care, We Vote” campaign and is encouraging hospital employees to register to vote and to vote on November 3.

This week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released guidance aimed at assisting states in moving to value-based care models within their Medicaid populations. In keeping with its strategy to enhance and increase value-based care models for Medicare beneficiaries, CMS believes aligning the Medicaid program, as well as encouraging private payors to adopt similar new payment models, will help drive care transformation and adoption of these new models. The guidance also includes new flexibilities awarded to states to help them with this transition.

A broad coalition of medical research advocates, including researchers and stakeholders representing more than 300 organizations and institutions including HAP, are urging Congress to make funding the National Institutes of Health (NIH) a national priority.

Today, the Pennsylvania House Health Committee passed legislation supporting the health care community in providing care for patients after the COVID-19 pandemic has come under control. The Retaining Healthcare Innovations Act, House Bill 2779, sponsored by Representative Chris Quinn (R-Delaware), ensures that the transition is a gradual return to health care practices for both the provider and the patient by extending waivers and administrative flexibilities for 90 days beyond the end of the emergency declaration.

According to a recent report from The Commonwealth Fund, insurance coverage gains associated with the Affordable Care Act have stalled or eroded in most of the states between 2016 and 2018 after improving in all states between 2014 and 2016. 

The Pennsylvania House Professional Licensure Committee today met to consider several pieces of legislation that would enable Pennsylvania’s patient population to leverage the nation’s entire health care workforce. 

In a tweet today, Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the Administration would withdraw a proposed Medicaid regulation which stakeholders cautioned would have significant consequences, putting economic pressure on states and negatively impacting Medicaid beneficiaries across the country.

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found an estimated 40.9 percent of U.S. adults have avoided medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic, including 12 percent who avoided urgent or emergency care and 31.5 percent who avoided routine care.

Co-chaired by state Representative Wendy Ullman (D-Bucks), the House Democratic Policy Committee held a hearing about the impact that COVID-19 has had on nursing homes and congregate care facilities.