Perspective
Perspective is a weekly blog from Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, that explores the most important issues facing hospitals and health systems.
Congress has headed home for its traditional August recess. That tradition began, by the way, as a sensible concession to Washington, D.C.’s steamy summer climate, long before central air conditioning came to Capitol Hill in 1938.
At this summer’s AHA Leadership Summit, senior health care executives, clinicians and experts shared state-of-the-art thinking on conquering the challenges facing our field and bold ideas for transforming health care in our country.
One important learning from the two-and-a-half-year COVID-19 pandemic is that the public health emergency (PHE) waivers made an enormous difference for hospitals and health systems.
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.
we are deeply concerned that last week’s Centers for Medicare…
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…
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.
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…
Earlier this year we formed the AHA Board of Trustees’ Task Force on Workforce, a key part of our ongoing efforts to sound the alarm about this national emergency and take steps to address it. The task force has worked to identify ideas, policies and solutions to support our current workforce and…
Two studies released last week during Community Health Improvement Week highlight the tremendous value hospitals provide to benefit their communities.