Rick Pollack, President and CEO, AHA
![Rick Pollack Perspective 900x400 12-2023](/sites/default/files/2023-12/Rick-Pollack-Perspective-900x400px-12-23.png)
Hospitals and health systems — and the women and men who work there — are the heart of health care.
It seems like barely a week goes by without a new cyberattack that affects health care providers. Often, it’s a ransomware attack conducted by foreign criminal gangs, which are provided safe harbor by hostile nation states, that targets a mission critical third-party service provider or supplier, like the attack on UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare or the recent attack on OneBlood.
Despite the diligent efforts of hospitals, health systems and medical professionals to prevent violence, health care workers remain five times more likely than any other type of worker to be physically attacked on the job.
It is important to use the August recess that begins next week as an opportunity to engage senators and representatives while they are back home. It is critical for federal lawmakers to understand the challenges hospitals and health systems face.
Patient safety is the top priority of every caregiver. Hospitals and health systems never stop searching for ways to improve quality, performance and results for the individuals and families who entrust them with their care.
For too long and for too many patients, the process of obtaining prior authorization for a medical procedure or medicine has been a tangled web, as people are forced to navigate complex, confusing and burdensome regulations from some commercial insurers that have resulted in the delay or denial of needed care.
The AHA Leadership Summit offers something valuable for every health care professional. It’s a great way to get updated on what’s happening across our field, as well as network and tap into the terrific energy that comes from connecting with colleagues, peers and friends who share common goals and concerns.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is supposedly committed to being “an authoritative voice for fiscal responsibility.” That’s why it’s so disappointing that they would propose something so irresponsible in a new report — repealing nonprofit hospitals’ tax exemption. In reality, eliminating that exemption could result in more burden being placed on taxpayers to cover the cost of all the benefits and services these hospitals provide to their patients and communities. Worse than that, eliminating the longstanding exemption would cause hospitals across the country to close their doors, which would be the epitome of fiscal recklessness.
For nearly a decade, the AHA’s Hospitals Against Violence (HAV) initiative has shone a light on how hospitals and health systems are working to: heal victims of violence as well as their communities, prevent further acts of violence, and address violence in the workplace.
For nearly a quarter of a century, the Coalition to Strengthen America’s Healthcare, of which AHA is a founding member, has shared our agenda of fortifying patients’ access to high-quality health care — 24/7/365.