AHA Statement before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health regarding Lowering Unaffordable Costs: Examining Transparency and Competition in Health Care.
Testimony
Every day, AHA staff take to Capitol Hill to tell the hospital story, working to educate Congress on key issues and the field’s concerns. We also advocate with federal regulators, provide expert testimony, and highlight the impact proposed changes could have and suggest alternative solutions. Below are the most recent statements the AHA has submitted for the record for congressional hearings or agency panels.
Latest
AHA's statement before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions regarding health care workforce shortages.
AHA statement for the record as the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety of the Committee on the Judiciary examines the importance of improving the immigration process in order to help alleviate America’s health care workforce shortage.
AHA shares proposals to lower Medicare drug prices with congress.
America’s hospitals and health systems play a central role in delivering health care in this country and are committed to the goal of affordable, comprehensive health coverage for every American. We believe we should build upon and improve our existing system to increase access to coverage of comprehensive health benefits.
Statement
of the
American Hospital Association
to the
Committee on Finance
of the
United States Senate
Statement of the
American Hospital Association to the
Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety
of the
AHA statement submitted to the House Ways and Means for a hearing on the nation’s mental health crisis.
the American Hospital Association (AHA) appreciates the opportunity to submit for the record our comments regarding concerns about anticompetitive conduct on the part of health care staffing agencies, some of which have been exploiting the severe shortage of health care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, our clinician partners – includi
AHA urges Congress to enact the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act (H.R. 1667) and prioritize funding to support the nation’s health care workforce needs during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Since the first COVID-19 cases were diagnosed and the pandemic changed the ways in which patients were able to access traditional health care settings, providers were required to navigate significant challenges to ensure their services were still able to reach millions of patients. In response, Congress and the Administration granted various flexibilities intended to improve access and facilitate the delivery of safe, quality care. As health care providers reflect on lessons learned and plan a post-pandemic course for the future, it is evident that several of the flexibilities have enhanced the patient experience and led to better outcomes.
A strong and reliable medical supply chain is a critical and integral component to delivering safe and effective high quality care to patients; however, it has become increasingly clear that the level of fragility across our national medical supply chain is unsustainable and poses significant risk to hospitals and health systems, as well as the patients and communities they serve.
Being a member of a health system brings measurable benefits to patients and health system employees: lower health care costs, improved patient care, better access to health care providers, and increased investment in technology and equipment.
The increased use of telehealth since the start of the public health emergency (PHE) is producing high-quality outcomes for patients, closing longstanding workforce gaps and those that arose as a result of an overwhelmed, hardworking provider workforce, and protecting access for patients too vulnerable to risk infection. We urge Congress to consider how to ensure these flexibilities could remain in place for patients and health care providers beyond the PHE.
AHA Statement for Education & Labor, Workforce Protections Subcommittee on “Clearing the Air: Science-Based Strategies to Protect Workers from COVID-19 Infections”
AHA Statement before the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, on The Future of Telehealth: COVID-19 is Changing the Delivery of Virtual Care.
John Riggi, AHA senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk, testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on defending communities from cyber threats during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AHA’s statement for the record to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means for the May 27, 2020 hearing, “The Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 on Communities of Color.”
Statement
of the
American Hospital Association
for the
Committee on Energy and Commerce