Press Release

AHA Statement on H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Contact:
David Allen - (202) 626-2313
Alicia Mitchell - (202) 626-2339

Washington D.C.

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Rich Umbdenstock
President and CEO
American Hospital Association

February 13, 2009

America's hospitals strongly urge that the House and Senate pass the conference report on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  This legislation provides immediate relief to help shore up our fragile health care system, and, at the same time, lays the foundation for more comprehensive efforts to make significant improvements and reforms to health care.

Provisions existing in these bills contain key items that are important to the patients and communities served by the nation's hospitals, ranging from ensuring the availability of health care coverage for the unemployed and providing increased support for the Medicaid program to making a down-payment on investments to improve the quality and efficiency of care through health information technology; investing in the training of more health care professionals, and blocking several Medicare and Medicaid regulations proposed by the previous Administration that would have created barriers to serving our most vulnerable patient populations.

This bill is a step in the right direction, and we look forward to working with Congress and the Administration to further refine some of the provisions and expand on others in our efforts to improve health care for all Americans.

About AHA

The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the improvement of health in their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which includes more than 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, and 38,000 individual members. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends.