WellLink Unveils 2026 Advocacy Agency Amid Congressional Action on Healthcare Funding
Reaffirming its commitment to ensuring a sustainable, innovative and equitable healthcare system for all providers and communities in Northeast Ohio, WellLink Health Alliance unveiled its 2026 advocacy agenda amid ongoing Congressional action on healthcare funding.
The agenda outlines WellLink’s top policy priorities that enhance healthcare delivery, workforce sustainability, and social drivers of health. Through this vital advocacy, WellLink demonstrates its role as a limitless link for improving medical, social and economic health through collaboration and innovation across the region.
Working to enhance healthcare access, efficiency and sustainability for the benefit of the communities it serves, WellLink continues to champion policy issues at the state and federal levels, including the extension of enhanced premium tax credits and other measures critical to maintaining coverage, access to care and healthcare affordability.
WellLink Health Alliance’s agenda details the following three priorities:
1. Advocate for sustainable healthcare financing across all provider settings while ensuring fair reimbursement structures that support hospitals, community health centers, behavioral health providers, home care, and other essential healthcare organizations.
· Funding: Advocate for maintaining and improving state and federal healthcare funding.
· Efficiency: Work to reduce administrative burdens to ensure timely care and reimbursement.
· Coverage Expansion: Support expanding health coverage and addressing uncompensated care.
· Access & Outcomes: Focus on eliminating barriers to care and improving health outcomes.
2. Advocate for policies that address workforce shortages across all healthcare sectors from hospitals to home health, long-term care, loan forgiveness and behavioral health. Strengthen pathways into healthcare careers through education partnerships and workforce development initiatives.
· Workforce Safety: Ensure the safety of healthcare workers in the region.
· Workforce Shortages: Address workforce shortages and stimulate interest in healthcare careers.
· Burnout Reduction: Tackle healthcare workforce burnout through administrative reforms and well-being initiatives.
3. Advocate for advancing quality, equity, and innovation and support systemic changes for a more effective healthcare system that supports community well-being.
· Patient Safety & Cybersecurity: Safeguard patient safety and protect data from cyber threats with AI advancements.
· Social Drivers of Health (SDoH): Leverage data-driven strategies and cross-sector partnerships to address social drivers of health while ensuring healthcare providers across settings — hospitals, community clinics, behavioral health services, and long-term care — have the resources to improve population health outcomes.
· Integrated Health: Promote initiatives that support a more integrated and cohesive healthcare system.
· Equity in Care: Bridge gaps to ensure equitable care across all aspects of healthcare delivery.
· Supply Chain: Bolster the resilience of the medical supply chain to ensure access to vital medications, supplies and equipment.
WellLink Health Alliance’s advocacy agenda is aligned with the priorities of other provider organizations. Recently, the American Hospital Association released their advocacy agenda which expresses similar priorities and supports federal action to sustain healthcare affordability.
Healthcare Funding Moves Forward in Congress
WellLink’s advocacy efforts have taken place against the backdrop of an especially busy time in Washington, D.C., as Congress and the administration have been seeking common ground on a federal budget. WellLink has been in ongoing communication with the Northeast Ohio congressional delegation over the last weeks and months to underscore the issues most important to the membership. Most recent activity in the form of the Health and Human Services budget passed by Congress indicates a number of wins for hospitals and healthcare.
The bipartisan health package incorporates extensions of key healthcare programs, including critical rural Medicare programs, telehealth flexibilities, and the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program. It also eliminates Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payment cuts through Oct. 1, 2027; delays scheduled cuts and reporting requirements for clinical lab payments; and maintains support for key healthcare workforce, maternal and child health, rural and behavioral health programs.
Highlights of the package include:
Medicaid DSH Cut Delay
The legislation would eliminate the remaining Medicaid DSH reductions for fiscal year 2026 and the scheduled reductions for FY 2027 ($16 billion). It retains the Medicaid DSH allotment reductions for FY 2028.
Rural Extenders
The legislation extends the enhanced low-volume adjustment and Medicare-dependent hospital programs for the remainder of 2026. It also extends add-on payments for ambulance services through Jan. 1, 2028. These add-on payments support rural, “super-rural,” as well as urban ambulance services.
Health Resources and Services Administration
$8.9 billion is designated to support critical community, maternal and public health programs; help train the next generation of healthcare providers; promote rural hospital sustainability and access to care in rural communities; and modernize the organ transplantation system with a continued focus on patient safety. This is an increase of $929 million in funding.
Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response
$3.7 billion is included to support biosecurity through research and development of medical countermeasures for pandemic threats, and fortifying our stockpiles and supply chains for drugs, masks and other lifesaving medical supplies, including $240 million for the Hospital Preparedness Program, through which WellLink serves as the designated regional coordinator for Northeast Ohio.
Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection
The bill would reauthorize the program for five years through 2030 and add emphasis on programs to reduce the administrative burden on healthcare workers. The Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, a first-of-its-kind law to protect and strengthen health workers’ mental health and well-being, has already transformed and saved lives. The Act has improved the systems in which health workers are educated, trained, and practice by providing innovative training materials, enabling the development of suicide prevention resources, and supporting more than 250,000 health workers across 45 evidence-informed initiatives.
Learn more about WellLink Health Alliance’s policy and advocacy priorities by visiting welllinkhealthalliance.com.
