Record Flu Season Underscores Urgent Need to Protect Access to Care
As we enter this year’s legislative session, I am focused on preserving the progress New York state has made in maintaining and enhancing access to care.
All that progress, however, is being eroded. Harmful policy changes in Washington, including the recent enactment of H.R. 1, have already diminished healthcare access and will do much more compounding damage in the coming months and years.
And that’s all while our providers continue to face long-term and immediate fiscal and workforce challenges – including potential costly nursing strikes at several downstate hospitals that would occur amid a record number of flu hospitalizations.
I make an urgent plea to lawmakers as the legislative session begins: Just like a flu shot can minimize potential permanent harm, enacting commonsense policies like the ones I describe below can help preserve access to care and mitigate the impacts of harmful federal policy changes.
We can’t wait: Action is needed now. New Yorkers’ care, jobs and communities are at stake.
New Yorkers rely on hospitals 24/7/365
Delivering care is our hospitals’ mission, but it’s not their only impact. Serving as economic anchors, our hospitals support 979,000 jobs statewide and generate $247 billion in economic activity annually, making up 10.4% of the state’s entire gross domestic product.
A hospital’s presence encourages families and businesses to put down roots. When our hospitals thrive, communities thrive.
But right now, half of all hospitals in New York are operating in the red – their expenses exceeding their revenue. Our latest joint hospital association fiscal survey showed another 21% barely breaking even, lacking the funds needed to invest in new technology, update their facilities and undertake necessary, long-term, multi-year modernization efforts.
This is an untenable reality already – and hospitals are bracing for what is to come.
H.R. 1 and other harmful policies present new, immediate challenges. Health coverage for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers has already been destabilized. This impacts all New Yorkers, regardless of health coverage, as hospitals face lower reimbursement rates and provide more care for which they’ll never be paid. Other policy changes directly aimed at hospital funding will leave their mark soon.
Meanwhile, longstanding challenges like those HANYS raised in The Case for Change continue to face our hospitals, health systems, nursing homes and other providers. We continue to need a robust response to the increasing and changing medical demands of our aging population, the shortage of available workers across a wide variety of clinical and non-clinical roles, challenges securing adequate reimbursement from government and private payers, and more.
Despite all of this, I have hope.
New York must act now to preserve and enhance access to care
Lawmakers can enact several policies this year that would help mitigate some of the severe and growing challenges facing our healthcare providers, workers and patients.
New policies take time to have an impact, so swift action now is of the essence.
State lawmakers have made essential healthcare investments. We cannot go backward. Policymakers must maintain the fiscal support and infrastructure that sustain hospitals, health systems and other providers across New York. Their continued commitment to this fiscal support is essential to maintaining the patient care and healthcare jobs New Yorkers depend on.
Other policy measures would offer relief to hospitals, health systems and their healthcare workers without impacting care quality or imposing new costs to the state.
These measures broadly fall into categories addressing the 340B Drug Discount Program, the healthcare workforce and health insurer practices. For example, state lawmakers can:
- Stop major drug manufacturers from dismantling the 340B program. Protecting the 340B program is one of the most impactful actions New York legislators can take to support their local hospitals, clinics and the healthcare needs of their constituents. New York hospitals and clinics rely on 340B drug savings to preserve care and programs for their patients. But drug manufacturers are increasingly reneging on their obligation and commitment to providing discounted drugs to eligible providers. Several states have taken action to protect their 340B program and New York should follow suit.
- Allow temporary practice permits to be issued to qualified out-of-state healthcare professionals who have accepted permanent positions in New York while their state licensure application is pending. Amid chronic workforce shortages and increasing demand, we should not let paperwork get in the way of qualified healthcare workers being allowed to serve our patients.
- Streamline New York’s prior authorization requirements and make sure health insurers respond promptly. Too often, patient care is delayed and providers’ limited time and resources are wasted due to health plans’ inaction. Health plans should be expected to be responsive to patients’ healthcare needs 365 days per year, just like hospitals.
HANYS looks forward to a busy legislative session ahead, as we advance these and many more proposals. We’ll be fighting to preserve New Yorkers’ access to care and we urge our policymakers and all stakeholders to join us.
Bea Grause, RN, JD, president, Healthcare Association of New York State
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