(Feb. 12, 2026) - As Capitol Hill is currently consumed by debates around tariffs and funding for the Department of Homeland Security, now is a good time to take stock of the year ahead in health care policy. Considering this, health care advocates took to the Hill yesterday as part of the National Rural Health Association's annual Policy Institute to discuss priorities for the upcoming year.
Kansas Hospital Association staff led a group of 13 Kansans, ranging from medical students to hospital CEOs, for meetings with Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) and staff with all other members of the Kansas Congressional Delegation. A primary issue our discussions focused on was maintaining a strong rural health care workforce. Of note, those we met with generally agreed with our position that lowering loan limits for medical students and graduate nursing, social work, physician assistant and other health care students would be detrimental to professional recruitment and to building the pipeline over the long term. While Congress has little leverage over the Trump Administration's decisions on this, five of our six offices have proactively weighed in during the comment period on our behalf.
Another topic of concern of our congressional leaders was improving access to physician residency programs in rural areas. This involved preventing sole community hospitals from having to choose between maintaining their Sole Community Hospital designation and receiving Graduate Medical Education funding. Additionally, they sought exemptions or improvements to the Transforming Episode Accountability Model and future Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center models, aimed at keeping Medicare beneficiaries closer to home during recovery from major medical procedures. These are issues that we will work on as the year progresses, particularly as we approach the appropriations season.
We also discussed concerns regarding the 340B Drug Pricing Program and the expansion of the rural emergency hospital model. Thank you to all who participated in our discussions on Capitol Hill this week. We have confidence the issues important to Kansas hospitals will be kept top of mind by our Congressional partners.