The AAMC joined over 40 hospital, provider, and other health care stakeholders in a letter urging congressional leadership to include the Medicare Sequester COVID Moratorium Act (H.R. 315) in the next COVID-19 relief package. The legislation, which the AAMC has supported, would extend the current moratorium on the 2% Medicare sequester until the end of the public health emergency [see Washington Highlights, Jan. 29].
The letter stated that the “months ahead will be difficult as our nation launches an unprecedented effort to vaccinate the vast majority of Americans, while we simultaneously face the spread of new and potentially more harmful COVID-19 variants. Health care providers across the spectrum are ready to meet this challenge, but we need Congressional help now.”
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (P.L. 116-260) extended the moratorium until March 31, but the letter noted that Medicare reimbursement cuts caused by letting the moratorium expire would exacerbate the financial strain providers are under as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic [see Washington Highlights, Dec. 23, 2020].
“Now is not the time to cut Medicare reimbursements that are necessary to providing care to our communities,” the letter concluded.