Legislation and Legislative Advocacy

The 黑料正能量 Association (AHA) shares resources on health care legislation being considered by the U.S. House and Senate and legislative advocacy opportunities for hospitals and health systems.

While your senators and representatives are in their home districts and states for the Memorial Day recess, please contact your lawmakers and urge them to prioritize hospitals and health systems in the infrastructure legislative package discussions.
At a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights hearing examining the benefits health systems provide to communities, AHA Board Chair Rod Hochman, M.D., emphasized that the pandemic clearly demonstrated the benefits that integration provides to respond to鈥
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.
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 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. 
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.
Members of the House and Senate Telehealth Caucus 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.
At a House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health hearing, health care stakeholders urged Congress to continue granting telehealth flexibilities to health care providers in an effort to best care for patients beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency. 
The increased use of telehealth since the start of the public health emergency (PHE) is producing high-quality outcomes for patients, closing longstanding workforce gaps and those that arose as a result of an overwhelmed, hardworking provider workforce, and protecting access for patients too鈥