Org Leadership & Governance 4

AHA.ORG | PAGE 6 OF 162025 ADVOCACY AGENDA

Financial Stability of the Health Care System

� Ensure essential health care services are available in all communities by safeguarding federal funding for Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Health Insurance Marketplaces. Government programs currently reimburse providers signi!cantly less than the cost of delivering care.

� Ensure patient access to critical care and other outpatient services by rejecting additional payment cuts that do not recognize legitimate differences among provider settings (also known as so-called site-neutral or facility-fee payment policies) and policies that restrict patient access to certain sites of care (also known as site-of-service policies).

� Preserve the gains in health coverage made over the past decade, including by extending the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits for coverage through the health insurance marketplaces.

� Protect the 340B Drug Pricing Program to ensure hospitals can maintain vital patient services and expand access to care by reversing harmful policies and holding drug manufacturers accountable to the program rules, especially community pharmacy arrangements.

� Ensure Medicaid is fully funded to allow hospitals to continue to serve the Medicaid, uninsured and underserved populations in their communities, including through support of the current FMAP rates, the Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital program, Upper Payment Limits and Directed Payments, and the !nancing sources that sustain them.

� Pursue a new “metropolitan anchor hospital” designation for certain hospitals that provide critical health care services to marginalized and underrepresented communities.

� Ensure the Federal Emergency Management Agency follows through on its commitment to reimburse hospitals appropriately and timely for the resources they provide during public health emergencies and other disasters.

� Mitigate Medicare payment reductions to ensure patient access to physicians.

� Rein in rising drug costs by taking steps to increase drug manufacturer competition, improve drug pricing transparency and hold pharmacy bene!t managers accountable for illegal practices that increase costs and reduce coverage for patients and providers.

� Enact regulatory and administrative relief from burdensome policies that take caregivers away from providing patient care and increase costs for patients and the health care system.

� Protect not-for-pro!t hospitals’ tax-exempt status so they can continue providing community bene!ts tailored to their communities’ unique needs, demographics and policy realities.

� Protect access to clinical laboratory services in hospital-based laboratories.

� Protect access to care by preserving the existing ban on the growth and expansion of physician-owned hospitals.

ENSURING ACCESS TO CARE