Perspective

Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, standing in front of the AHA seal and a United States flag.

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.

More than 200,000 of our friends, family members, fellow citizens and front-line workers have succumbed to COVID-19 since March. To put that in context, that’s approximately the same as the population of Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will withdraw its Medicaid fiscal accountability proposed rule from its regulatory agenda.
This morning, like most mornings, I looked at a picture outside of my office that was taken on Sept. 11, 2001. The picture shows doctors, nurses, administrators and other caregivers standing outside the emergency department of my local community hospital in Arlington, Va., waiting to treat victims…
A century ago, nominating a presidential ticket during political conventions was an arduous marathon. The Democrats opened their convention with 14 names in serious contention, while the Republicans had to whittle down their list from a dozen hopefuls.  
August is traditionally the time to take a break, go on vacation, or just slow it down and relax for a bit. For many people, that’s off the table this year. COVID-19’s impact on health, our economy and our ability to gather in groups has been a game changer for people’s personal plans.
There is yet no peace treaty or declaration of surrender in our own war with COVID-19, but we too must look ahead and start planning for what health care should look like in a post-pandemic world.
A divided Congress. A lapsed deadline to pass important legislation. And uncertainty about how the situation will end.
There’s a poignant moment in Hamilton: An American Musical in which a despondent George Washington laments the long odds of his revolution, “a powder keg about to explode” unless he receives an immediate infusion of the supplies and reinforcements he was initially promised at the war’s start.
With COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths on the rise in much of the country, negotiations on the next COVID-19 relief package are picking up in the Senate.
Congress returns to Washington, D.C., on Monday, and the stakes are extremely high. The Senate will begin serious negotiations on the next COVID-19 relief package, and we expect Congress to pass legislation before the August congressional recess.