Rick Pollack, President and CEO, AHA
Articles
Community Benefit, Community Partnerships, Population/Community Health, Promoting Healthy Communities
Hospitals Work in Many Ways to Help Create Healthy Communities
Beyond administering life-saving medical care to individual patients, all hospitals provide incomparable value to their communities by opening their doors to everyone who needs care, as well as working in partnership with others to improve and sustain the health of all of those in their communities.
Commercial Insurer Accountability
Protecting Access to Care by Confronting Commercial Insurers’ Harmful Policies
Delaying and denying authorizations for medically necessary care. Forcing patients to try potentially ineffective treatments through step therapy, or “fail first” protocols that require patients to try and fail certain treatments before the insurer will authorize more costly treatments.
Community Benefit, Medicare, COVID-19: Caring for Patients and Communities
Blog: Article on Charity Care Shortsighted
All hospitals and health systems, regardless of size, location and type of ownership, are deeply dedicated to caring for their patients and communities in a wide variety of ways. A report from May by the respected accounting firm EY demonstrates that for every dollar invested in non-profit hospitals and health systems through the federal tax exemption, nearly $9 in benefits is delivered back to communities.
Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems (IPPS), Outpatient Prospective Payment Systems (OPPS)
Perspective: Making Sure Hospitals Have the Resources to Care for Patients and Communities
we are deeply concerned that last week’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed rule would increase Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system rates by just 2.7% in calendar year 2023 compared to 2022. Given the current historic rates of inflation and continued labor and supply cost pressures, a much higher update is warranted.
Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems (IPPS), Medicare, Advocacy & Public Policy
Perspective: Rallying Support to Prevent Medicare Cuts that Threaten Access to Care
The AHA has been making the case to CMS urging it to adjust the market-basket update to account for the unprecedented inflationary environment hospitals and health systems are experiencing, and eliminate the productivity cut. We also have asked Congress to weigh in with the agency to make these changes in its final regulation.
Cost Management, Commercial Insurer Accountability
Rising Costs, Inflation Threaten America's Hospitals & Health Systems
America’s hospitals and health systems are facing a crisis: a tsunami of financial challenges that are exerting tremendous pressure on their ability to deliver care.
Leadership, AHA Leadership Summit
Reconnect, Recommit, Reenergize at 2022 Leadership Summit
When the best minds in health care come together on a national stage you can count on sparks flying, great discussions, new ideas emerging and the entire profession taking a step forward.
Access & Health Coverage
America Remains a Land of Hope, Opportunity and Promise
After months of hot debate and strenuous give-and-take, 38 delegates signed the Constitution of the United States on Sept. 17, 1787. When asked by a curious citizen just what kind of government had been structured by the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin is said to have answered: “a Republic, if you can keep it.”
Medicare
Perspective: Halting Cuts to Hospital Payments and Preserving Access to Care
Throughout the pandemic — which is still very much ongoing as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to increase — hospitals and health systems have battled many formidable obstacles to continue to treat patients and deliver life-saving care to all who come through their doors.
Mass Violence, Hospitals Against Violence, Active Shooter
Perspective: Speaking out and Stepping up Against Violence
On Wednesday evening, a gunman killed four people in a medical building on the campus of Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Okla. We grieve with the victims and their families, as well as the entire Saint Francis Health System team, as they mourn the loss of four members of their community.