Blog
Blogs from AHA leaders and members on the latest health care issues.
In 2014, 15.7 million adults suffered from at least one major depressive episode, making it one of the most common behavioral health conditions in the U.S., according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Major depression is also highly treatable once diagnosed, so making that diagnosis is…
The open enrollment period for the 2016 Health Insurance Marketplace ends Jan. 31. America’s hospitals are playing a large part in the nationwide efforts to make the enrollment process easy, accessible and widely available. The results are impressive. The number of Americans without health…
Our fragmented health care system is rapidly transforming into a more integrated delivery system where providers need to work together more closely to provide the best and most appropriate care. An important part of the equation is post-acute care providers. Emerging innovations in post-acute care…
Today the AHA hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill to educate Congressional staffers on how post acute hospitals are playing an essential role in new delivery models. The four panelists were:
William Altman
Executive Vice President for Strategy, Policy and Integrated Care
Kindred…
Today, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) released the first in a planned series of reports that will identify “social risk factors” affecting the health outcomes of Medicare beneficiaries, and methods to account for these factors in Medicare payment programs like the Hospital Readmission…
A report released last month used commercial claims data from United Healthcare (United), Aetna and Humana to reach a number conclusions about hospital prices and concentration. The paper is badly flawed and the assertions made about hospital market structure and prices, in particular, should be…
President Obama Tuesday pointed to the importance of addressing mental illness as part of a nationwide effort to stem gun violence. The president requested from Congress additional resources to increase access to mental health care. Hospital leaders know all too well that mental illness is too…
Better prevention, new medications, advanced technologies, and the sophisticated care that modern hospitals provide to patients are just some of the ways that hospitals are improving the care they deliver to their communities, which have led to shorter hospital stays. A recent column suggests…
During the holiday season, the lives of millions of Americans will be filled with the spirit of giving, the importance of family and friends, and a sense of healing, renewal and new opportunity. That spirit lives year-round in hospitals in every kind of community in every corner of the country. In…
A new study out today conflicts head on with an April 2015 study by a leading health care expert and antitrust economist that found “concentration or structure alone is not a meaningful or reliable predictor of price changes.” Both studies relied on commercial data, but the latter had authors who…