(Nov. 22, 2022) - The 2022 general election is over, and while all of the five major office candidates up for reelection in Kansas won their bids, changes are on the horizon for 2023 in Washington, D.C. Last week, U.S. Representative Mike Garcia (R-CA) was declared the winner in his bid for reelection, securing the Republican Party’s 218th seat in the House for the upcoming 118th Congress. This ensures the Republican Party controls the House. The Senate, meanwhile, will remain in Democratic hands, as the 48 elected Democratic senators, along with two independents who caucus with the Democrats, will form the majority in the upper chamber.
At this point, the unknown is how large each party’s majority will be. On the one hand, Democrats have a chance to gain a 51st seat in the Senate run-off election in Georgia. On the other hand, Republicans are likely to prevail with a handful more House seats that have yet to be formally called. Regardless of these outcomes, the United States remains sharply divided by party, with neither party showing the kind of mandate needed to push through big-ticket items over the next two years. As a result, the 118th Congress, which will last from January 2023 to December 2024, is likely to produce little legislation. The GOP-led House will continue to focus on oversight and investigations of President Joe Biden’s administration. The Democratic-held Senate will continue to focus on approving Biden administration appointees and judges.
Despite this division, the responsibility of governing will fall to leaders in both chambers. Several healthcare-related items still need to be addressed in the waning days of the 117th Congress and over the next two years. Primary among them, from the Kansas Hospital Association’s perspective, is the impending 4 percent PAYGO Medicare sequestration cut that will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2023 unless Congress passes legislation to void it. KHA opposes sequestration, and are vocal with the Kansas Congressional delegation that this problem needs to be fixed.
In addition, KHA is joining the American Hospital Association to discuss with elected officials the danger of the provider rate cuts present in Medicare’s 2023 prospective payment system and have asked for the reversal of the administrative decision. Finally, we are pushing for the Senate to act on H.R.4040, the Advancing Telehealth bill, which provides common-sense telehealth policy extensions beyond the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency. All Kansas House members voted aye on this bill. Another item needing final approval before the expiration of the 117th Congress is extensions of the current low-volume hospital and Medicare-dependent hospital programs. These programs are in the current continuing resolution and are likely to be adopted in the year-end budget bill.
The KHA Executive Committee will head to Washington, D.C. the week after Thanksgiving to meet with Kansas’ members of Congress to discuss these issues and others that have a longer-term horizon. The issues include the state of the 340B Drug Discount Program, STEM recognition of BSN degrees to help ease immigrant nurse work authorization backlogs at the Department of Homeland Security, changes to the process of prior authorization so patients can receive timely care, Provider Relief Fund repayment timeline extensions, the increasing problem of Medicare Advantage plans taking advantage of consumers and providers alike, as well as the enforcement of Congressional intent on mediation as the method for solving surprise billing disputes under the No Surprises Act.