AHA Statement on Report from Elevance Health

Rick Pollack
President and CEO
American Hospital Association
 

August 4, 2023

A new “report” from Elevance Health — the large, for-profit commercial insurer formerly known as Anthem — draws absurd conclusions about the impact of health care systems on access to care, cost and quality. Of greatest irony is that while the national health plan behemoth, which dominates many insurer markets, is pointing fingers at the actual health care providers serving patients, it is pocketing record profits. Indeed, if Elevance is so concerned about health care costs, perhaps it should consider its own pricing strategies that have resulted in the company earning nearly $2 billion in profit in the second quarter of this year alone.

With all the recent news coverage on the bad behavior of commercial insurers, let’s take this latest “report” for what it is — just another attempt to distract people from the reality of how some insurers, like Elevance, delay and deny patients’ access to care. Elevance is particularly notorious for slow or no payment to hospitals and pre-authorization delays that put patient's health at risk and contribute to clinician burnout.

This biased piece fails to recognize the immense benefits of hospital and health system mergers for patients. Perhaps the most egregious omission is the recognition that mergers often prevent struggling hospitals — especially in rural and other medically underserved areas — from closing and that it is inadequate payment by payers, like Elevance, that destabilize these providers to begin with.