2012 AHA Advocacy Issue Papers

America's hospitals stand ready to care 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year... ensuring that patients have access to the care they need at the right time, in the right setting. But hospitals' ability to maintain the kind of access to services that their communities have come to expect is threatened.

In this critical election year, the debate over the national debt and what to do about it has taken on particular urgency. Hospital leaders understand the fiscal challenges our nation faces.  But additional cuts to Medicare and Medicaid funding for hospital services would mean longer wait times for care; fewer doctors, nurses and other caregivers; and less patient access to the latest treatments and technology.

The time is now to work together toward long-term solutions that will set these programs on a path toward future sustainability. Our patients and communities deserve the care they need to always be there.

Message Cards

• The Challenge of Access: Will the Care be There?
  

The AHA's advocacy efforts in 2012 fall into three general areas.

Transforming the Health Care Delivery System

• Improving Hospital Performance
• Delivery System Reform Programs
• Coverage
• Physician Issues
• Health Information Technology

Maintaining Essential Resources

• Medicare
• Medicaid
• Small or Rural Hospitals
• Outpatient Evaluation & Management Services 
• Annual Appropriations
• Workforce
• Hospital Capital Financing
• Pension Funding
  

Reducing Regulatory Burden

• Program Integrity & Contractor Overlap
• Clinical Integration
• Administrative Simplification & ICD-10 Implementation
• Medical Liability Reform