Articles
Health Insurance
Bias-Riddled “Study” is More Deception Backed by Insurers
A recent paper funded by the objective-sounding organization the “National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation” adds to the growing list of commercial health insurer-backed, bias-riddled research aimed at diverting attention away from that industry’s troubling practices. This time they claim to have found a link between hospital consolidation and access for people covered by Medicaid.
340B Drug Pricing Program, Setting the Record Straight
340B Analysis Wrong and Irresponsible
Modern Healthcare’s putative report on CMS’ 340B remedy proposal is completely wrong and irresponsible for the following reasons. First, to buttress its conclusions the article relies on quotes from an academic whose 340B research is funded in whole or in part by an organization with an anti-hospital agenda.
Financial Management, Setting the Record Straight
What a Recent Health Affairs Piece Gets Wrong about Hospital Finances and Charity Care
A recently published article in Health Affairs on hospital finances and financial assistance uses a flawed, debunked methodology to justify preconceived conclusions about how hospitals manage their finances.
Leadership, Surprise Medical Billing
Blog: Why hospitals and physicians are filing suit over No Surprises Act final rules that jeopardize patient access to care
By Melinda Hatton, Molly Smith - Group Vice President for Public Policy, American Hospital Association
America’s hospitals and physicians filed a lawsuit in an effort to protect patients’ access to critical health care services. At issue is the implementation of the No Surprises Act, legislation that both the AHA and AMA worked vigorously to get enacted in order to protect patients from surprise medical bills for out-of-network care.
Community Benefit, Uncompensated Care, Tax-exempt Status
Analysis Fails to Recognize Charity Care is Only Part of a Hospital’s Total Community Benefit
The mission of all hospitals and health systems, regardless of size and type of ownership, is to care for their communities and patients. In fact, an Ernst and Young report from 2017 demonstrates that for every dollar invested in non-profit hospitals and health systems through the federal tax exemption, $11 in benefits is delivered back to communities.
Mergers & Acquisitions
AHA Rebuttal to “Employer Consolidation and Wages: Evidence from Hospitals”
A recent American Economic Review article provides an outdated and recycled take on the effect of hospital consolidation on wages. The article first appeared as a working paper several years ago.
Mergers & Acquisitions
The echo chamber propagates the same old same old for hospital mergers: we can do better.
By Melinda Hatton, Aaron Wesolowski - AHA Vice President of Policy, Research, Analytics and Strategy, Benjamin Finder
Hospital mergers are worth discussing, but too often the criticism is far from rigorous and is more like an echo chamber where critics cite those with whom they agree and ignore inconvenient facts that show how the hospital field continues provide quality care in their communities.
Mergers & Acquisitions, Quality Measures
Another flawed article on hospital consolidation gets undeserved attention
By Melinda Hatton, Aaron Wesolowski - AHA Vice President of Policy, Research, Analytics and Strategy, Benjamin Finder
Chief among the flaws in the most recent study on hospital consolidation published in the New England Journal of Medicine was that its conclusions were informed by preconceived notions of what the authors thought the data should show, which was then undermined further by the arbitrary choices made in comparing hospitals. Unfortunately, the media, once again, failed to closely examine the conclusions, in many instances exaggerating or misrepresenting the findings to manufacture attention-grabbing headlines.
Mergers & Acquisitions, Cybersecurity
AHA Stat Blog: Mergers help health systems keep patient data secure
There are numerous benefits to the community that derive from hospital and health system mergers, starting with quality improvements and expanding services.
Advocacy & Public Policy
New analysis finds recent RAND study misses the mark
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.