HAP's Latest News

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.

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.

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.

Yesterday, Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Health Subcommittee Chair Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Diana DeGette (D-CO) sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar expressing strong concerns about recent actions taken by drug manufacturers that undermine the 340B Drug Pricing Program.

This week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a new action plan focused on rural health care as part of its response to President Trump’s August 3 rural health Executive Order. This assessment, a product of the HHS Rural Task Force, is HHS’ first in-depth look at rural health care in more than 18 years. 

This week, the Federal Communications Commission, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the co-signing of a Memorandum of Understanding combining their efforts to expand broadband, which would increase access to telehealth in rural America.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this week announced that it has expanded the availability of COVID-19 relief funding to assisted living facilities. This announcement comes as Congressional leaders and White House officials have been unable to reach a consensus on an additional COVID-19 financial relief package.

Hospitals are urging action by policymakers in Washington, D.C. as loans provided under the Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payment Programs are scheduled to start to be repaid, many as early as the end of this month. Recoupment of the loans will be made in the form of lost Medicare payments, at a time when hospitals are still absorbing the significant financial impact of COVID-19, facing reduced revenue as patients remain reluctant to seek care, and preparing for a potential resurgence of COVID-19 during the fall and winter.

A group of six national health care, business, and public-sector advocacy groups have urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to withdraw the Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation proposed rule.

Today the Trump Administration announced the Community Health Access and Rural Transformation (CHART) Model. CHART advances efforts to create new ways to finance rural health care, as announced in President Trump’s recent Executive Order.