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Today, hundreds of hospital leaders are reaching out to their members of Congress to talk about the challenges facing their patients and communities.

What are the issues facing hospitals and health systems today? Recent developments regarding the so-called site-neutral payment provisions included in the outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) proposed rule and legislation, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), among others.

The ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ Association recently provided comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) on their implementation of the site-neutral provisions contained in Section 603 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BiBA). The AHA is extremely concerned the proposal would prevent hospitals from being able to continue to provide the current level of necessary, innovative and high-quality health care in their communities.

In addition, hospital leaders are focusing on the impact of the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP). Hospitals and health systems continue to improve patient care, but readmissions penalties continue to rise. This new infographic illustrates that while hospitals have reduced readmissions by 565,000 since 2010, they’ve been penalized $1.9 billion by the HRRP. In addition, the program needs the desired sociodemographic adjustment to even the playing field.

As hospital leaders highlight the value of the services they provide to their communities back home, they ask lawmakers to protect care.