Thank you for sharing what matters most to you throughout 2024. We gathered feedback from more than 1,000 hospital and health system leaders, including members of AHA’s Regional Policy Boards and Committees, State, Regional and Metropolitan Hospital Associations, and other key membership groups.
The result is our 2025-2027 Strategic Plan, which the AHA Board of Trustees approved in November. This plan will help you tackle the top issues of today and propel us to a future where all individuals reach their highest potential for health.
The plan is rooted in four core disciplines — advocacy and representation, thought leadership, knowledge exchange and agents of change — which define AHA’s approach to providing value to members and advancing our field’s goals. It also includes nine principles that serve as the foundation for what we believe the health care system should be and strategies to help us make progress on our mission of advancing health in America.
While we know our health care system faces a number of significant challenges, we also know that we have many opportunities to build a healthier future for our patients and communities. The AHA is proud to support our nation’s hospitals and health systems as you provide 24/7 life-saving care to all patients and lead innovative efforts to advance well-being.
We encourage you to review the details — and related resources available on our webpage — and use them within your own organization as together we chart the course for the future.
You are central to our national health and health care. The AHA is incredibly proud to represent and serve you. We look forward to working together this year and in the future as we continue to advance health in America.
Tina Freese Decker
AHA Board Chair
Rick Pollack
AHA President and CEO
To advance the health of all individuals and communities. The AHA leads, represents and serves hospitals, health systems and other related organizations that are accountable to communities and committed to equitable care and health improvement for all.
A just society of healthy communities, where all individuals reach their highest potential for health.
| Strategies | Principles | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accessible | Affordable | Equitable | Safe, High Quality | Sustainably Staffed | Economically Viable | Innovative | Coordinated | Person-Centered | |
| Advance quality and patient safety through the Patient Safety Initiative. | X | X | X | ||||||
| Create meaningful progress toward care transformation and demonstrate improvements in accessibility, affordability, coordinated continuum and economic viability. | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Improve and protect federal funding, including ACA subsidies. | X | X | X | ||||||
| Hold commercial insurers accountable and prevent insurance barriers to care. | X | X | X | X | |||||
| Scale and spread successful new care models as designed by members. | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Accelerate the utilization of technology to enhance the workforce. | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| Enhance public trust and confidence. | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Improve the consumer experience. | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| Address opportunities for care improvement utilizing the rapidly emerging promise of novel drug therapies and developing technology for diagnostics and therapeutics. | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Accessible | Affordable | Equitable | Safe, High Quality | Sustainably Staffed | Economically Viable | Innovative | Coordinated | Person-Centered | |
| Protect the 340B Drug Pricing Program. | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Address care disparities and health inequities. | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |
| Mitigate vulnerabilities to members’ ability to provide 365/24/7 care, e.g., supply chain weaknesses, cyber threats, third-party targets, etc. | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Establish health care as a destination career. | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Scale disruptive collaborations (e.g., Civica Rx, Truven) and establish unique partnership models with other stakeholders in the health care ecosystem. | X | X | X | X | |||||
| Address public and policymaker understanding of the complexities of the cost of care and medical debt. | X | X | X | X | |||||
| Optimize the Common Health Coalition* work plan to contribute to AHA principles. | X | X | X | X | |||||
| Create new bridges between separate but interdependent pieces of the care delivery infrastructure. | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Scale competencies in support of population segments with unique needs, e.g., aging, maternal and child, behavioral and mental health. | X | X | X | X | X | ||||
* The Common Health Coalition is the coalition formed by the AHA, American Medical Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, Association for Community Health Plans and Kaiser Permanente to make improvements to the intersection between the health care delivery and public health infrastructures.
AHA’s 2025 Environmental Scan provides insights on the latest data and emerging trends, helping leaders assess the current landscape and plan strategically for the future.
AHA’s 2025 Health Care Workforce Scan offers trends, expert insights and bold new approaches to guide workforce strategies and initiatives.
FutureScan 2025 from AHA’s Society for Health Care Strategy & Market Development is a strategic planning resource that covers topics such as value-based care financing models, strategic planning imperatives, and advances in digital behavioral health and predictive technologies.
AHA’s Market Scan, from our Center for Health Innovation, provides regular insights and analysis on the field’s latest developments in health care disruption, transformation and innovation.
AHA’s Trustee Services provides an array of resources to help foster high-performing hospital and health system boards that can navigate their organizations through the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
