Last week, more than 450 leaders from businesses, nonprofit organizations, local government, and health care in the six-county Sacramento region participated in the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce’s 53rd Annual Capitol-to-Capitol (Cap-to-Cap) federal advocacy program in Washington, D.C. Hospital Council members who took part included representatives from CommonSpirit Health, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, and UC Davis Health.
Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) was the primary discussion topic with members of the Congressional delegation — including Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff and Democratic Reps. Doris Matsui, Ami Bera, John Garamendi, and Mike Thompson; and Republican Reps. Kevin Kiley, Doug LaMalfa, and Tom McClintock.
The goal was to highlight the local impact of Medicaid cuts — reinforcing that cuts would reduce access to care for all patients, not only those covered by Medicaid, and especially patients in rural communities.
Late Sunday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee released a proposal that includes at least $715 billion in Medicaid cuts.
“Cuts of this magnitude cannot be absorbed,” said Carmela Coyle, President & CEO of the California Hospital Association. “Hospitals will have no other choice but to reduce patient care services or, in the worst cases, close entirely. That means care is lost for everyone — children, seniors, privately insured people — no matter what type of health insurance coverage you have.
“Congress must revisit budget priorities,” she continued. “Limiting access to health care is not an acceptable outcome.”
Meetings also included discussions of ambulance patient offload time (APOT), focusing primarily on the dramatic improvement over the last 18 months — from 73 minutes in December 2023 to 29 minutes in November 2024 (and as of last month, it’s still holding close to the standard at 34 minutes).
“When I took this job four years ago, APOT was the only thing people wanted to talk about,” said Trevor Jamison, president of Firefighters Local 522. “Now, no one complains about it. Our guys in the field feel the difference.”
Sacramento County has scheduled recurring meetings with the expanded workgroup, including managed care plans, behavioral health, safety net, primary care, and post-acute providers.