ALERT: Ask Your State Senator to Vote ‘YES’ on 340B Legislation
The Illinois State Senate is expected to vote this week on IHA’s Illinois Patient Access to 340B Pharmacy Protection Act (SB 2385) to safeguard the 340B drug discount program. We urge you and your team to immediately contact your State Senators and ask them to support and vote “YES” on this critical legislation. The legislation would prohibit drug manufacturers from restricting, prohibiting or otherwise interfering with hospitals’ ability to dispense 340B drugs through their contract pharmacy partners. Your engagement is essential to demonstrate strong support for this vital policy and help ensure its passage.

ACTION REQUESTED: Contact your Senate legislator TODAY and urge them to support and vote yes on IHA’s 340B protection legislation. Click here to access IHA’s digital messaging platform to send a pre-populated message directly to your State Senator to ask for their support of this legislation. You may also use our provided call script if you prefer to reach out by phone. We strongly encourage you to share this request with your staff and urge them to take action as well.

Click here to access an IHA fact sheet with accurate information about the 340B program and the proposed legislation—designed to counter misleading claims from the pharmaceutical industry.

Click here to access an IHA fact sheet describing the Illinois Patient Access to 340B Pharmacy Protection Act. 

Federal Budget Update: House Budget Cmt. Advances Medicaid Cuts
In a rare late-night Sunday session, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce advanced President Trump’s sweeping legislative package—the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—by a narrow 17-16 party line vote. The legislation proposes extending Trump-era tax cuts, increasing border security funding, and enacting major reforms to Medicaid and nutrition assistance programs—including an estimated $900 billion in total reductions, with roughly $700 billion coming from the Medicaid program. Key provisions include:

• Freezing provider taxes and tying future state-directed payments to Medicare rates (with a grandfather clause for existing applications and approvals).
• Penalizing states that use state funds to cover undocumented individuals by lowering the ACA expansion FMAP from 90% to 80%—a change that could cost Illinois $815 million and activate Illinois’ trigger law which would remove the ACA expansion population from coverage.
• Imposing mandatory community engagement requirements (e.g., work, volunteering, school), on Medicaid beneficiaries.
• Increasing eligibility checks from annually to every six months.
• Reducing retroactive Medicaid coverage from 90 to 30 days.
• Requiring cost-sharing of up to $35/service for Medicaid expansion enrollees, capped at 5% of household income.

There are some positive elements included in the proposal:

• Delays Medicaid DSH cuts to 2029.
• Blocks Biden-era nursing home staffing rule for 10 years.
• Includes physician payment relief.
• Avoids site-neutral payment cuts.

The bill faced a temporary setback on Friday due to opposition from House hardliners, who later voted “present” in order to move the bill forward after securing unspecified concessions. The legislation now heads to the House Rules Committee, with a meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 1 a.m. ET.

The Senate is expected to revise the package significantly, with several Republican Senators voicing concern over the more extreme Medicaid provisions. While Speaker Johnson has set a Memorial Day goal for House passage, key deadlines remain the debt ceiling deadline (expected this summer) and the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30.

If you have not contacted your members of Congress to urge them to oppose any cuts to Medicaid and other critical healthcare programs, we strongly encourage you to do so. Click here to use IHA’s online advocacy portal to send a message and explain how these proposed reductions would harm access to care for your community and their constituents. 

IHA, HFS to Host Data Collection Webinars on Average Commercial Rate 
The Illinois Dept. of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) has begun collecting average commercial rate (ACR) data from all Illinois hospitals. All hospitals participating in the Illinois Hospital Assessment Program (HAP) must submit this data to HFS no later than June 25, 2025. To view the ACR collection tool, click here. IHA and HFS will be hosting webinars explaining the ACR data collection project this Thursday, May 22, from 11 a.m.-noon CT and Tuesday, June 3, from noon-1 p.m. CT. To register for these webinars, click here. To view an IHA memo with more background information on this project, click here. 

Staff contact: Elizabeth Nelson 

ALERT: Use Only Sterile Ultrasound Gel for Percutaneous Procedures
The Illinois Dept. of Public Health today issued a Health Alert that echoes a recent Health Alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warning of patient safety risks associated with the use of non-sterile ultrasound gel during percutaneous procedures—those that involve puncturing the skin. CDC has received reports from multiple states linking infections caused by Paraburkholderia fungorum, an environmental bacterium, to the use of contaminated ultrasound gel. The CDC alert includes recommendations for healthcare providers, including:

• Use only single-use ultrasound gel products labeled as “sterile” for ultrasonography in preparation for or during percutaneous procedures (e.g., placement of central and peripheral intravenous lines, amniocentesis, paracentesis, tissue biopsy and surgical procedures).
• Healthcare providers who perform ultrasounds and/or ultrasound-associated procedures should be trained in the appropriate use of ultrasound gel products.
• An ultrasound gel product label’s claim of “bacteriostatic” or “preservative” without a specific indication of sterility should be considered non-sterile for clinical purposes.