The Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals has asked members of the House of Representatives to join an effort to prevent an $8 billion cut in Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) allotments to the states from taking effect on January 1, 2025.

The Medicaid DSH cut, originally scheduled for 2014, has repeatedly been blocked by Congress because it understood the damaging effect it would have on the ability of community safety-net hospitals and others to serve their medically vulnerable communities.  Now, with a new start date for the planned cut, a bipartisan group of House members is circulating a letter asking their House colleagues to petition their leadership to prevent the cut.  Community safety-net hospitals are supporting this effort by reaching out to their own House members to ask them to sign the the letter.

In its request to House members that they join the letter, ASH writes that

Medicaid DSH is a vital tool for helping community safety-net hospitals and others care for the residents of the economically vulnerable communities they serve.  These community safety-net hospitals are the primary providers of care for many uninsured, under-insured, low-income, and Medicare- and Medicaid-dependent Americans.  The hospitals that serve such communities rely heavily on Medicaid DSH for support in providing that care and Medicaid DSH payments are essential for their survival

See the letter circulating in the House here and go find ASH’s letter to House members asking them to join that letter here.