2006

Health and Hospital Trends

Every year AHA releases a series of reports that provide up to date information on both health and hospital trends.  Data from various sources including the AHA Annual Survey are compiled and made available trough our TrendWatch Chartbook.  Other reports and surveys of hospital leaders are conducted throughout the year and provide a snapshot of issues like the workforce shortage, hospital finances, ED diversion, health care costs, disaster preparedness and other topics of interest to policy makers and the media.

Uncompensated Hospital Care Cost Fact Sheet (pdf), October 2006
Each year, the American Hospital Association (AHA) publishes aggregate information on the level of uncompensated care delivered in U.S. hospitals. The data used to generate these numbers come from the AHA’s Annual Survey of Hospitals, which is the nation’s single most comprehensive source of hospital financial data. This fact sheet provides the definition of uncompensated care and technical information on how this figure is calculated on a cost basis. It also describes how the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) accounting changes to bad debt and free care are currently handled in the Survey to ensure continuity of uncompensated care numbers.

Underpayment by Medicare and Medicaid Fact Sheet (pdf), October 2006
Each year, the American Hospital Association (AHA) collects aggregate information on the payments and costs associated with care delivered to beneficiaries of Medicare and Medicaid by U.S. hospitals. The data used to generate these numbers comes from the AHA’s Annual Survey of Hospitals, which is the nation’s single most comprehensive source of hospital financial data. This fact sheet provides the definition of underpayment and technical information on how this figure is calculated on a cost basis for Medicare and Medicaid.

The State of America's Hospitals, Taking the Pulse, A Chartpack (ppt), April 2006
The State of America’s Hospitals: Taking the Pulse, a survey of our nations community hospitals, illustrates hospitals’ daily challenges including, but not limited to, the workforce shortage, ED capacity and diversion, medical liability, health care costs and emergency readiness.

Chartbook: Trends Affecting Hospitals and Health Systems (ppt), April 2006
The TrendWatch Chartbook 2006 is our 7th annual release of important information, charts and data on trends in the field. This chartbook, together with our periodic TrendWatch reports, is designed to provide helpful analysis of key topics in health care. Inside, you’ll find charts and graphs depicting key trends.

Avalere Health provides objective analysis to support AHA policy development. As a research and consulting organization, Avalere does not advocate for or endorse positions on specific policy issues.