House Champions Circulating DSH “Dear Colleague Letter" - January 12, 2010

Reps. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), John Lewis (D-GA) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) have circulated a dear colleague letter in the House of Representatives. The letter asks House leaders to limit Medicaid and Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) cuts to be no larger than what is proposed in the House-passed health reform bill. The health reform bill passed by the Senate in late December would cut federal Medicaid DSH funding by nearly $19 billion and Medicare DSH by more than $24 billion over ten years. The cuts would begin in 2015. The House-passed bill includes more reasonable reductions of approximately $10 billion each in Medicaid and Medicare DSH. The cuts would not begin until 2017, and would be preceded by a secretarial study on DSH funding.

NAPH has asked all member hospitals to contact their delegations to ask their House members to sign the dear colleague letter to send a message to congressional leaders about the importance of protecting access for vulnerable patients at safety net hospitals. The deadline to sign the letter is close of business, January 12. To sign on, the contact is Alexandra Sifuentes in Rep. Reyes' office.