The AHA supports both bills’ provisions for expanded coverage and for enacting the coverage in 2013. In the letter, the AHA notes that insurance market reforms are necessary to make this provision successful and should be enacted thoroughly and quickly. The association says it supports expanding Medicare coverage.
The AHA also supports efforts to increase hospital price transparency and state-based efforts to increase transparency on price and quality data, according to the letter.
Protection of Medicare hospital market basket updates in 2010-2013 was also included in the letter, and the AHA supported the Senate bill’s proposal of reducing the updates by 0.25 percentage points opposed to the House’s propose of 1.3 percentage points from 2010-2011.
Other provisions mentioned in the letter address concerns regarding hospital-acquired infections and value-based purchasing arrangements.
Read the AHA’s letter on healthcare reform (pdf).
