Press Releases

Chad GolderGeneral CounselAmerican Hospital Association

The American Hospital Association (AHA) today presented two federal hospital leaders with awards recognizing their outstanding service to the health care field. These awards recognize uniformed and non-uniformed federal health care leaders who have distinguished themselves through singularly significant or innovative achievements and leadership that have contributed substantially to the mission of the federal health system.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) today announced that Steven Summer, the former president of the Colorado and West Virginia Hospital Associations, will be awarded AHA’s 2024 Board of Trustees Award. Summer is currently the president and CEO of the Healthcare Institute. The Board of Trustees Award is presented to individuals or groups who have made substantial and noteworthy contributions to the work of the AHA on behalf of the hospital field.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) today announced that Christina Campos, CEO of Guadalupe County Hospital in Santa Rosa, N.M., will be awarded its 2024 Board of Trustees Award. The Board of Trustees Award is presented to individuals or groups who have made substantial and noteworthy contributions to the work of the AHA on behalf of the hospital field.

CMS’ proposed inpatient hospital payment update of 2.6% is woefully inadequate, especially following years of high inflation and rising costs for labor, drugs, and equipment. Many hospitals across the country, especially those in rural and underserved communities, continue to operate under unsustainable negative or break-even margins.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) today announced that its 2024 Award of Honor will be presented to Ken Kaufman, founder, managing director, and chair of Kaufman Hall in Chicago, in recognition of his long career providing health care organizations with expert counsel and guidance in areas including strategy, finance, planning, and partnerships.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) will present its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, to Nancy Howell Agee, CEO of Carilion Clinic, a not-for-profit integrated health system serving more than 1 million people in Virginia and West Virginia. Agee will receive the 2024 award during a ceremony on April 15 at the AHA Annual Membership Meeting in Washington, D.C.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) will present its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, to Brian Gragnolati, president and CEO of Atlantic Health System, an integrated system with 20,000 team members serving more than half the state of New Jersey. Gragnolati will receive the 2024 award during a ceremony on April 15 at the AHA Annual Membership Meeting in Washington, D.C.

We welcome today’s letter from the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Labor that recognizes the unprecedented nature of the Change Healthcare cyberattack and its far-reaching impacts on hospitals, physicians and the health care sector.

We appreciate the information that UnitedHealth Group has laid out regarding an aspirational timeline of potential technical relief for this historic cyberattack on the U.S. health care system. However, nothing in the announcement materially changes the chronic cash flow implications and uncertainty that our nation’s hospitals and physicians are experiencing as a result.

The Change Healthcare cyberattack is the most significant and consequential incident of its kind against the U.S. health care system in history.

America’s hospitals and health systems are dedicated to protecting their patients and workforce against cyber attacks that can disrupt patient care and erode privacy by the loss of personal health care data.

Rick PollackPresident and CEOAmerican Hospital Association

The American Hospital Association (AHA) today announced the team from Queen’s North Hawaiʻi Community Hospital, a 35-bed rural acute care hospital located in Waimea (Kamuela) on Hawai‘i Island, as the 2023 recipient of the Rural Hospital Leadership Team Award.

While the AHA appreciates inclusion of a two-year delay on DSH cuts, we have been very clear regarding the harm that would be done to our nation’s hospitals if so-called site-neutral cuts to Medicare were adopted. We have strongly urged that those cuts be eliminated from this legislation.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) today announced that Melinda (Mindy) Hatton, AHA’s general counsel and secretary, will retire after a long and distinguished career in the association and legal world.

Today, the American Hospital Association, AHIP, the Alliance of Community Health Plans, the American Medical Association, and Kaiser Permanente announced the Common Health Coalition: Together for Public Health.

The AHA is concerned that CMS has again finalized an inadequate update to hospital payments. Today's increase for outpatient hospitals of only 3.1% comes in spite of persistent financial headwinds facing the field.

Following years of litigation and a unanimous Supreme Court win, the AHA is very pleased that 340B hospitals finally will be reimbursed in full for what HHS unlawfully withheld from them for five years.

The American Hospital Association (AHA), joined by the Texas Hospital Association, Texas Health Resources, and United Regional Health Care System, today sued the federal government to bar enforcement of an unlawful, harmful, and counterproductive rule that has upended hospitals’ and health systems’ ability to share health care information with the communities they serve, analyze their own websites to enhance accessibility, and improve public health.