Vizient Urges Affordable Patient Care and Continued Viability of America’s Hospitals

Business Wire

IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Vizient, Inc. concurs with statements made by hospitals and industry associations expressing disappointment and significant concerns with the current draft of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) but looks forward to working with Congress to ensure that individuals are able to maintain their health insurance coverage.

Vizient serves the nation’s leading health care providers, including most of the country’s academic medical centers, pediatric facilities and other safety net providers. These organizations provide critical health care services to all individuals who show up at their doors. We hope that Congress will work to not only ensure that patients continue to have access to affordable health care, but also that hospitals get the financial reimbursements they need to reasonably continue their mission to provide high quality care to everyone.

We have significant concerns with policy provisions in the AHCA, in particular how the proposed restructuring of the Medicaid program will impact individuals and providers. By reducing federal Medicaid funds to states, state budgets will be further constrained, which could lead to fewer individuals enrolled in the Medicaid program and increased uncompensated care at our member institutions. It is critical to learn what the impact of this legislation will be on the uninsured and we are disappointed that Congress is moving forward without an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. As such, we are unable to support the American Health Care Act in its current form.

We urge Congress to continue to work with providers, patients and all stakeholders to help maintain insurance coverage options and further reduce the number of uninsured Americans.

Vizient is the nation’s largest health care performance improvement company serving a diverse membership that includes academic medical centers, pediatric facilities, community hospitals, integrated health care delivery networks and non-acute health care providers.

About Vizient, Inc.

Vizient, Inc., the largest member-driven health care performance improvement company in the country, provides innovative data-driven solutions, expertise and collaborative opportunities that lead to improved patient outcomes and lower costs. Vizient serves a diverse membership and customer base which includes academic medical centers, pediatric facilities, community hospitals, integrated health delivery networks and non-acute health care providers and represents almost $100 billion in annual purchasing volume. The Vizient brand identity represents the integration of VHA Inc., University HealthSystem Consortium and Novation, which combined in 2015, as well as the recently acquired MedAssets’ Spend and Clinical Resource Management (SCM) segment, which includes Sg2. In 2016, Vizient received a World’s Most Ethical Company designation from the Ethisphere Institute. Vizient headquarters is based in Irving, Texas, with locations in Chicago and other cities across the United States. Please visit www.vizientinc.com as well as our newsroom, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube pages for more information about the company.