In the coming months, as negotiations continue on a path forward for the All-Payer Model and federal leaders debate changes to health care policy and funding, a new state commission will serve as an important forum for Maryland’s stakeholders to protect health care coverage.​

For hospital leaders fighting to protect coverage for their patients and communities, it’s been another week of Capitol Hill consternation. Fifty senators, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking a tie, voted to allow debate to proceed on several bills aimed at repealing and possibly replacing the Affordable Care Act.​

Despite the failure this week of Senate Republicans to pass a bill that would have repealed the Affordable Care Act and replaced it with an alternative plan, millions of Americans remain at risk of losing their health care coverage.​ There are several reasons.​

Each of you, as a hospital leader in Maryland, knows firsthand the challenges and rewards of transforming health care delivery. Spurred by the All-Payer Model demonstration, for nearly four years, your hospitals have led the charge in this arena – innovating, experimenting, and ultimately succeeding with novel strategies to control costs, improve outcomes, and care for whole communities.

With the July 4 holiday just past and the dog days of summer approaching, the temperature may be heating up but nothing slows down in the world of health care. Here is a midsummer list of the important activities MHA is undertaking on your behalf that the heat cannot wilt: In Washington DC, we are working with our congressional delegation and the American Hospital Association to make sure our senators have everything they need to fight the bad health care bill that is working its way through the process – if process is still the correct word for what is going on.

While a vote on the Senate’s health care bill – the Better Care Reconciliation Act – has been delayed, the fight to protect patients and communities is far from over. Analyses this week from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the American Hospital Association show that the bill would significantly impair the way Maryland’s hospitals care for their patients and communities, jeopardizing the All-Payer Model and the seismic care delivery transformation it has cultivated.