More federal funding is needed for hospitals that serve especially high proportions of Medicaid patients and patients insured by government programs, the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania has written to members of the state’s congressional delegation.

This is especially important now, SNAP emphasized in its letter, because of new plans to use some of the $100 billion designated for hospitals and health care providers in the federal CARES Act to pay instead for care for uninsured patients who contract COVID-19.  Those payments, which SNAP supports, do not address the needs for which the original $100 billion was designated:  to help hospitals – including Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals – with the cost of the investments they made to prepare for the expected influx of COVID-19 patients and to help them with cash flow challenges arising from the loss of revenue associated with suspending elective procedures.

See SNAP’s letter to Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation here.