AHA Stat Blog

To all our hospital and health system leaders: Thank you for encouraging innovation among your teams…nurturing big dreams for our field…and working tirelessly to advance health in America.

AHA staff recently visited two rural hospitals to see and hear firsthand how leaders are engaging in innovative practices to increase accessibility and affordability for their communities.

In this AHA Stat Blog, Priya Bathija, vice president of AHA’s The Value Initiative, shares how screening for social needs can help hospitals and health systems improve population health and offers tips to make your program more robust.

Women in rural areas face unique maternal health care challenges, including hospital closures or lack of obstetric services. In this AHA Stat Blog, Jay Bhatt, D.O., senior vice president and chief medical officer of the AHA, and Melissa Mannon, AHA associate director of policy development, discuss priorities to improve maternal health services identified at a recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services forum.

AHA’s Leadership Summit will deliver a speaker and topic to engage everyone, from trustee to clinician to CEO.

When the federal government and America’s hospitals and health systems work together, we can make a real difference for patients.

In this AHA Stat Blog, Jay Bhatt, D.O., senior vice president and chief medical officer of the AHA, and Elisa Arespacochaga, vice president of the AHA Physician Alliance, share ideas and resources from the first Leadership Circle session, which covered AI and burnout in the health care industry.

This weekend, I was pleased to participate in a robust, AHA-sponsored discussion as part of the Aspen Ideas: Health Festival on how hospitals and health systems are adapting to this new push beyond our traditional boundaries, and what this shift means for affordability, patient outcomes and the care experience.

Integrating behavioral health services to treat the whole patient across the continuum of care is vital to improving health in our communities — and it’s just one of the many ways hospitals and health systems are working to advance health in America.

The AHA leverages the nation’s leading platforms to share the story of how hospitals and health systems are advancing health in America.

Surprise billing has no place in health care and America’s hospitals and health systems are committed to protecting patients from this unfair practice.

In this AHA Stat blog, Institute for Diversity and Health Equity President and CEO Duane Reynolds highlights various resources, programs and efforts to help build and promote a diverse pipeline of health care leaders.

Marshaling the right workforce competencies to meet your future goals is a necessity for every hospital and health system.

Even with all the wrenches that have been thrown at it, the ACA has improved access to care, especially among those who needed it most.

Last month, researchers at RAND released a study that made broad claims about the prices that private insurers pay hospitals. AHA immediately pushed back that the study relied on severely limited data and lacked the level of reliability that could make it useful to inform serious policy discussions or decisions. A new analysis from Dr. Monica Noether and Benjamin Stearns,[i] economists at Charles River Associates, concurs.

In this AHA Stat Blog, Priya Bathija, vice president of AHA’s The Value Initiative, shares how hospitals and health systems are partnering with a range of stakeholders to compare best-practices, learn more about patients and address the social determinants of health, as evidenced during a recent AHA Executive Forum event.

Hospitals and health systems foster the development of healthy life all around them.  They are caregivers foremost – working tirelessly to advance the cause of good health for patients and communities. They are economic anchors – providing jobs and partnering with businesses to bolster the local economy. And they are researchers and bridge-builders – meeting the health needs of their surrounding communities by working closely with traditional and non-traditional partners. 

There’s no question that hospitals and health systems face a number of challenges.

America’s hospitals and health systems are dedicated to doing everything possible for patients, particularly when they need emergency care and as a place for refuge during disaster.

It is simply not true that hospital operating margins have been growing. Numerous studies and reports have been consistent that operating margins have decreased in recent years, as Medicare and Medicaid underpayments have continued to grow. Medicare payment-to-cost ratios have decreased in recent years, as well.