Dive Brief:
- The proposed termination of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) by the House Appropriations Committee and a proposed 35% budget cut by the Senate Appropriations Committee has led 195 medical groups to rally for the agency's preservation via letters to both chambers.
- Signed by members of the American Hospital Association, HIMSS and others, the letters ask to restore AHRQ's budget authority to $364 million and state. "AHRQ is the only federal research agency with the sole purpose of producing evidence to make healthcare safer; of higher quality; more accessible, equitable, and affordable; and to ensure that the evidence is understood and used," the letter stated.
- The letters also said, "AHRQ-funded research tools and datasets are being used in health settings across the nation to help us understand and improve a complex and costly health system so that we can achieve better outcomes for more people at greater value. AHRQ's research and data help Americans get their money's worth when it comes to healthcare. We need more of it, not less."
Dive Insight:
The medical groups said cutting the agency's budget "takes our country in the wrong direction," and argued "Americans deserve reliable information on how to deliver the best possible care, at the greatest value, with the best outcomes. AHRQ-funded health services research provides those answers."
The letters concluded the importance of funding AHRQ: "Health services research - through AHRQ - needs a dedicated funding stream. It's the optimal way to ensure the generation of evidence and data to make the practice of healthcare safer, more effective and more affordable for all Americans."