The Safety Net Pulse

Latest Episodes:

Understanding Why Essential Hospitals Are So Critical to the Nation's Health Jan 22, 2026

Show notes

America's Essential Hospitals new president and CEO, Jennifer DeCubellis, sits down to discuss her pathway to this new role, why our members are so critical in this challenging health care environment, and even a little bit of music history!

How Essential Hospitals Manage the Weight of Uncompensated Care Sep 30, 2025

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Essential hospitals provide large, and likely drastically increasing, amounts of uncompensated care to patients. Learn more about the impact of uncompensated care on essential hospitals and how they adapt to be able to continue serving in their communities.

Medicaid State Directed Payments: A Lifeline for Essential Hospitals and the Communities They Serve May 15, 2025

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Essential Hospitals leverage Medicaid state directed payments (SDPs) to ensure the ability to provide quality care to all who come through their doors.In this episode, explore how our members rely on SDPs to meet the needs of patients, regardless of ability to pay.

Essential Hospitals Facilitate Rural Access to Care Mar 25, 2025

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Essential Hospitals play an indispensable role in keeping all Americans healthy, including rural Americans.In this episode, explore how our members meet patients where they are through integrated systems of care and training of health care providers.

Beyond the Pandemic: The Future of Telehealth at Essential Hospitals Dec 04, 2024

Show notes

In communities that otherwise lack access to care, essential hospitals reach outside their walls to meet patients’ needs. Telehealth services have proved to be an important tool for providers to increase access to care for underserved populations. In this episode, learn how essential hospitals use telehealth to provide patient-centered care that best meets the unique needs and circumstances of individuals and communities.

Hospital at Home: Transforming Inpatient Care by Extending the Acute Hospital Care at Home Waiver Sep 19, 2024

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Essential Hospitals are using an innovative program – the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver – to enhance care delivery, improve patient outcomes, and address broader health equity issues. In this episode, learn about what the program is and how essential hospitals utilize the program to innovatively meet the needs of the communities they serve.

340B Savings: A Lifeline for Essential Hospitals May 13, 2024

Show notes

Essential hospitals operate on narrow margins and rely on indispensable programs, such as the 340B Drug Pricing Program, to stay out of the red. In this episode, learn about what the program is, who it serves, and how the savings it produces are used to support eligible hospitals’ communities and patients.

Site-Neutral Policies Disproportionately Harm Essential Hospitals and At-Risk Communities Jan 30, 2024

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Essential hospitals operate large ambulatory networks to bring care to people where they live and work. These clinics often are the only source of primary and specialty care for underserved people. This reach into communities is key to ensuring continuity of care for patients who face health risks due to lack of transportation, housing insecurity, and other social factors. But so-called “site-neutral” payment policies threaten that care by making clinic expansion financially unsustainable.

The Push to Designate Essential Hospitals Dec 04, 2023

Show notes

Various classifications for hospitals exist; however, essential hospitals, often those serving a safety net role, do not have a federal definition. These hospitals care for an underserved patient population and facilitate access to quality health care for all in our country. Various stakeholders see an acute need for such a definition to help decision-makers navigate the complex hospital landscape. In this episode, three health policy experts will describe the need for and momentum behind a federal designation for essential hospitals. Learn more at essentialhospitals.org.

A Looming Crisis for Hospital Safety Net Funding Sep 05, 2023

Show notes

Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government and act on other urgent matters — none more important to the safety net than stopping an $8 billion cut to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments. The cut — two-thirds of all federal DSH dollars — would jeopardize access to care for low-income patients and destabilize essential hospitals, key safety net providers. In this episode, three experts on these hospitals and Medicaid will describe the potential impact of DSH cuts and bipartisan support in Congress to avert this looming threat. Learn more at https://protectmedicaid.org/.

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