Advocacy Correspondence, PA House, Opposition to House Bill 2344 and House Bill 2339
July 11, 2024
Members of the House of Representatives:
On behalf of more than 235 hospitals and health systems, The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) continues to express its strong opposition to HB 2344 and HB 2339, which impose burdensome and duplicative requirements related to health care mergers and acquisitions and price transparency.
HB 2344 (Additional Government Oversight):
On Tuesday last week, you passed HB 2012, which also mandates Attorney General oversight of health care transactions, but with different provisions than HB 2344. Rather than double-down on incongruent policies, we urge you to work together to productively address the underlying causes of hospital financial instability, including persistent underpayment across payers, outdated regulations that drive administrative burden and costs, and continuum-wide workforce shortages.
HB 2339 (Additional/Duplicative Government Bureaucracy):
Hospitals are diligently working to meet additional changes to requirements of the federally required price transparency rules that came into effect on July 1, 2024. Pennsylvania hospitals are already more than 90 percent compliant with the federal requirements when it comes to consumer tools and information. Mandating duplicate and potentially conflicting requirements at this time could stall that progress while adding considerable administrative burden.
The greatest threat to Pennsylvanians’ access to care is the financial instability of its health facilities. Just last month PHC4 noted that—after multi-year losses—more than half of the commonwealth’s hospitals are operating in the red. Another 15 percent have margins too small to remain viable over the long term.
It is a mistake to pass new/duplicative government mandates and limit the tools to ensure access to care in every community.
Nicole Stallings
President and Chief Executive Officer
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Topics: Billing/Transparency, Regulatory Advocacy, State Advocacy, Workforce
Revision Date: 7/11/2024
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