“Urgent Action Needed” – HLC Letter to Ways & Means Leaders Outlines Importance of Hospital at Home and Telehealth Programs

The Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) sent a letter thanking leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee for holding a hearing examining post-acute care and urging them to permanently extend vital programs to help seniors. 

The hearing, entitled “After the Hospital: Ensuring Access to Quality Post-Acute Care,” included witnesses from healthcare systems, academic institutions, and stakeholder groups. 

In the letter, HLC outlines the importance of two vital programs – the Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCAH) initiative, which supports post-acute care by enabling earlier discharge and preventing avoidable escalation to skilled nursing facilities or long-term care hospitals, and Medicare telehealth flexibilities, which expand patient access across all care settings. 

While the House recently passed a continuing resolution that extends both, the letter asked lawmakers to go one step further. 

HLC’s Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Katie Mahoney wrote, “HLC strongly urges Congress to make permanent the Medicare AHCAH initiative and telehealth flexibilities, ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries can continue receiving high-quality hospital-level care at home and maintain access to essential virtual care, while improving patient outcomes and promoting healthcare system efficiency.” 

Additionally, the letter asks for lawmakers to bring back an expired telehealth program that help employees and employers. 

“HLC also urges Congress to reinstitute and make permanent the flexibility allowing pre-deductible telehealth coverage for Health Savings Account-eligible (HSA-eligible) high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) – a flexibility that expired in December 2024 but is crucial to ensuring access to cost-effective virtual care before meeting a patient’s deductible.” 

You can find the full letter here. 

Published March 12, 2025