Health groups brace for sequester, ask Congress to undo scheduled cuts

Hospital groups are planning lobbying efforts to convince lawmakers to cancel a 2 percent Medicare cut that would kick in next January. Meanwhile, 3,000 groups signed a 64-page letter expressing concern about the impact of non-defense discretionary spending reductions.  

Politico Pro: Hospitals Plan Lobby Blitz Against Sequester
The major hospital groups have stayed mum on the pending Medicare cuts headed their way under the budgetary sequester process. But that could change in a big way. The American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals are readying a Capitol Hill lobbying blitz in an effort to persuade lawmakers to cancel the 2 percent Medicare cut that goes into effect next January. Their hope is to match the intensity displayed by the defense sector, which has been a vocal opponent of the automatic cuts from the start and quickly mobilized their allies in Washington to pressure Congress to overturn them (DoBias, 7/13).

CQ HealthBeat: Sweating The Sequester -; Groups Express Alarm About Health Cuts
A coalition whose members would be affected by automatic cuts in non-defense discretionary spending under the budget control law sent a letter Thursday to members of Congress warning that the reductions would be "devastating" to the nation. The law calls for automatic cuts in defense spending and in other types of federal discretionary spending, including funding of agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and other health-related federal offices. Sixty-three pages of the 64-page letter list the 3,000 groups that signed it, hundreds of them health organizations (Reichard, 7/12).