AHA letter to Senators Jack Rosen and Bill Cassidy, M.D. voicing support of the Healthcare Cybersecurity Act (S.3904).
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 requests Attorney General Merrick Garland's support for legislation that would protect health care workers from assault and intimidation.
Mar 23, 2022
Our nation’s health care workers deserve the same protections and the same commitment from the Department of Justice. We therefore urge Attorney General Merrick Garland to support legislation, modeled after 18 U.S.C. § 46504, that would provide similar protections as those that currently exist for flight crews and airport workers.
AHA urges Congress to provide immediate additional support for hospitals and health systems as COVID-19 challenges persist.
AHA's comments to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, expressing strong support for creating a useable, scalable and efficient solution to help reduce prior authorization impacts on patients and providers.
The AHA and FAH urge CMS to deny DHR’s request for an exception to the prohibition on expansion of the facility capacity of a physician-owned hospital.
AHA expresses support the Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act (S. 3792).
The AHA expresses support for the Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act, bipartisan legislation that would extend the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ acute hospital care at home waiver program two years beyond the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
AHA encourages the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to work with Congress to require Medicare Advantage plans to waive prior authorization and other utilization management policies during public health emergencies, especially for hospitals transferring patients to post-acute care.
Responding to a request for information on digital health, the AHA March 4th urged Congress to permanently eliminate all restrictions on telehealth originating and geographic sites; continue to allow rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers to serve as distant sites for all telehealth services beyond mental health; make certain additional practitioners are eligible to deliver telehealth services; allow hospital outpatient departments and critical access hospitals to bill for telehealth services; and allow hospitals to bill the originating site fee when hospital-based clinicians provide telehealth services to hospital outpatients at home.