The Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) sent a letter Thursday evening to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra thanking him for his leadership during the pandemic and urging him to extend the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) beyond its current expiration date in April 2022. FAH also requested a minimum 60-day notice before the Administration ends the PHE.

“Since the initial declaration by HHS in January 2020, the PHE continues to provide substantial flexibilities that are essential to ensuring our ability to care for both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients alike… Given COVID-19’s sustained damage, unpredictable nature, and the threat of new variants that can quickly emerge, we urge you to continue to appropriately extend the PHE well beyond its current expiration date in April 2022,” wrote FAH President and CEO Chip Kahn.

The letter continues, “Once the Biden Administration eventually moves to end the PHE, we respectfully request that it provide more than a 60-day notice to states and health care providers. Unwinding the complex web of PHE waiver-authorized operations, programs, and procedures – which will have been in place and relied on for more than two years – is a major undertaking that, if rushed, risks destabilizing fragile health care networks that patients rely on for care.”

You can find the complete letter here.