The following statement was released today by Chip Kahn, President and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals.
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – We appreciate the pressing fiscal need to reduce the federal deficit and raise the national debt ceiling. However, we cannot support the Budget Control Act of 2011 because it sets in motion billions of dollars in arbitrary Medicare funding cuts. Arbitrary hospital payment reductions imposed for fiscal reasons are unwise and will impact caregivers and the beneficiaries they serve alike.
The Act rhetorically protects seniors, but this protection is illusory. Reducing critical Medicare payments to community hospitals will affect the ability of caregivers to ensure access to the timely care beneficiaries deserve and expect.
If the Act does pass, it is our hope that its mandated Joint Committee adopts a broad-based approach to reducing the deficit to eliminate the need for arbitrary sequestration. We look forward to working with the members of the Joint Committee and the Congress in resolving these critical fiscal problems facing the nation.
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The Federation of American Hospitals is the national representative of investor-owned or managed hospitals and health systems. Our members include general community and teaching hospitals in urban and rural areas as well as rehabilitation, long-term, cancer and psychiatric hospitals.
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