100 Most Influential People in Healthcare - 2022

Since 2010, Siegel has been working to advance the interests of more than 300 safety-net hospitals. The facilities serve patients who are uninsured, low-income or otherwise marginalized—but no statutory definition exists to codify what that means. Siegel wants to change that, calling on Congress to designate the hospitals by law to better target government funding to support their mission. His member hospitals provide seven times as much uncompensated care compared with their peers—or about $62.9 million average uncompensated care in 2020 vs. $8.3 million, according to the association. Siegel said that while the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act will help preserve access to affordable health coverage, it doesn’t provide the funding for healthcare staffing and infrastructure that safety-net hospitals need.