America's Essential Hospitals is ramping up its fight against cuts to Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital allotments under the ACA.
The association launched a campaign "of Washington advocacy, member mobilization and advertising" Monday to urge lawmakers to delay the cuts at least two years.
Medicaid DSH payments, which help compensate hospitals that provide care to a large number of poor and uninsured patients, were cut by $2 billion in the current fiscal year. The annual cut is slated to grow to $8 billion, with total cuts over eight years reaching $43 billion.
"Recognizing the cuts could not be justified, given persistently high uninsurance rates, Congress has delayed the DSH cuts in three strongly bipartisan votes since 2013. But lawmakers failed to act this fiscal year, allowing the cuts to start Oct. 1. The association seeks to roll back those cuts and delay further cuts at least two years," America's Essential Hospitals said in a statement.
The association said its campaign consists of digital advertising, its protectmedicaid.org website and social media. It hopes to get a DSH cuts delay included in Congress' next funding bill.
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