Minnesota's small and rural hospitals preserve access to care. MHA asks that Congress protect and maintain the current Critical Access Hospital program, and also work to fix the administrative limitations of the 96-hour and direct supervision requirements. 

MHA asks for pragmatic policy steps to improve Medicare for Minnesota's seniors and health care providers.

Minnesota hospitals are committed to maintaining leadership in patient safety and quality and ask for continued funding for the Partnership for Patients Hospital Engagement Networks (HENs) and co-sponsorship of H.R. 1343/S. 688, legislation to adjust the Medicare Hospital Readmission Reduction Program based on sociodemographic status of patients.  

Minnesota hospitals are committed to meeting the challenges posed by disasters and infectious disease outbreaks and ask that the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) release the $381.5 million in unallocated funds and recognize the intent of Congress to adequately reimburse hospitals for Ebola preparedness and response.

MHA seeks federal action to support greater adoption and reimbursement of telemedicine as a means of delivering care to Medicare beneficiaries. 

For more than 20 years, MinnesotaCare has been an effective way to provide affordable health coverage for low-income, working Minnesotans. To continue MinnesotaCare, the state will need it to qualify as a Basic Health Plan and receive corresponding federal funding.

Because Minnesota hospitals and health systems already deliver more efficient care than the national average, across-the-board cuts have greater negative impacts in Minnesota than other states.

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 froze the number of residency positions available for Medicare funding at the 1996 level, thereby limiting the number of physicians trained each year. However, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimates that in 2015 there will be a deficit of 62,900 physicians, which will double by 2025.

Congress recognized the importance of access to health care in rural communities and the vulnerabilities of small and rural hospitals by creating the critical access hospitals (CAH) program. Yet, some have now proposed eliminating the CAH designation for any hospital that is fewer than 15 miles from the next nearest hospital.

Minnesota's small and rural hospitals are the cornerstone of their communities. In addition to providing life-saving access to quality health care services, they are often the largest employer in the community, attract and employ a highly educated workforce, and they serve as a vital community resource for other employers' recruitment and relocation.

The Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA) convened a work group to explore how state and national policy makers can reduce hospitals’ and health systems’ regulatory burden and administrative costs. A final report was issued in January 2012 enumerating dozens of ideas. The following exemplify the federal regulatory relief suggestions the group identified.

Minnesota’s hospitals and health systems are committed to providing patients with the right care, at the right time, in the right setting. A critical component of this equation is having the right drugs available. However, the number of drug shortages has tripled in the last six years.

Minnesota hospitals make life-saving care available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At a time when hospitals face the simultaneous challenges and uncertainties of implementing federal health care reform, a shaky economy and the effects of state and federal budget cuts, it is important to ensure that every hospital can continue to fulfill its critical role as the safety net for its community.

Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA) members are actively participating in and, in some instances, creating nation-leading health care reform experiments. Each of these initiatives entails risk on the part of the hospital or health system, but the payoffs from the experience will come in the form of higher quality care forpatients and lower rates of cost growth for payers.