AHA Stat Blog

This year has been unlike any other in our lifetimes. As health care providers, we are always ready to run toward the challenge, to become a place of refuge and heal our communities. None of this is new, but this year has stretched our ability to do this and ensure our own resiliency.

Benjamin Franklin said “energy and persistence conquers all things.” Those words are certainly appropriate for this year as we continue our battle against COVID-19. They also are very pertinent for the next week as we must keep the pressure on Congress to make sure they provide hospitals and health systems — and the women and men on the front lines of the COVID-19 fight — with additional support and resources.

The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated health inequities we face as a nation. But we’re also seeing innovation in all aspects of care delivery and community collaboration and partnerships to address these challenges. We know that the homes where people live and their support networks of family and friends influence people’s ability to stay healthy or recover quickly. Access to safe, affordable and stable housing is key to good health. Strong social connections are linked to longer life and better mental health, whereas a lack of such social ties is associated with depression and increased mortality.

Sejal B. Shah, M.D., and Carla B. Monteiro, a licensed clinical social worker, at Boston-based Brigham and Women’s Hospital write that stigma and disparities around the opioid epidemic can disproportionately affect the Black and African American communities. In this blog, they urge providers to utilize available resources to help treat those with substance and opioid use disorders.

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed spotlight on health inequities in the United States. It has illuminated that, regardless of access to health care services, social and economic circumstances make some people more likely than others to become ill or have poor health.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the U.S. nearly 10 months ago, our hospitals and health systems have learned so much about how to slow down the spread, care for patients and help them recover.

Two hundred twenty-four. That’s the number of days since the last COVID-19 relief package was signed into law.

The AHA recently joined a non-partisan coalition, Get Covered 2021, to promote tools to stop the spread of COVID-19 and expand health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. Molly Smith, AHA vice president of coverage and state issues forum, explains how hospitals and health systems can get involved in this meaningful effort to improve the overall health of individuals and communities.

This case study highlights examples of capitated payment agreements that serve to increase the use and improve the quality of primary care services in rural communities. These arrangements are deployed at several levels of care management and delivery in the public and private sectors, with payment to parties such as managed care organizations, community health workers and physicians. Most of these models are enmeshed in larger, multi-agreement payment models and serve as an example of how to leverage capitated payments for specific services in conjunction with other payment methodologies such as fee-for-service, pay-for-value, and global budgeting.

About two years ago, the Buprenorphine Team — or B team — was formed at Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas, in collaboration with Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. Our goal is to offer Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications for patients with opioid use disorder who are admitted to the hospital and then transition that care to the community setting at discharge.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the AHA’s Report of the Special Committee on the Provision of Health Services, the AHA looks back on a report that served as a blueprint for a number of proposals for decades to come on national health insurance and health care reform.

The AHA’s 2021 Environmental Scan is a useful resource for looking ahead. It provides key data and insights on the current operational landscape and is designed to help leaders maneuver the rough road ahead.

This year, with so much to worry about, finding time for gratitude seems almost impossible. The irony, of course, is that we need it now more than ever. We just need to look for it.

Like everything else this year, Thanksgiving will be different. We hope that everyone will heed the recent letter to the American people from the AHA, AMA, and ANA … which lays out very strong reasons for not traveling this year, but celebrating instead within our immediate households. Of course we can share the holiday virtually, as we have so much else in 2020.

In this AHA blog, Michelle Hood, AHA executive vice president and chief operating officer and president for the AHA’s Health Forum, honors the important role of local care close to home, and shares her experiences leading health care organizations serving some of America’s most rural communities.

At Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, we were involved very early in this pandemic. We are still caring for the majority of patients with the coronavirus in our community, and we learn more every day. Looking back on many months of dealing with COVID-19, here are some lessons I learned, which may resonate with you too.

In this AHA blog, AHA Executive Vice President Tom Nickels discusses the resources hospitals and health systems need and what additional relief Congress should deliver during the COVID-19 public health emergency and beyond.

As we celebrate National Rural Health Day on Nov. 19, it’s important to recognize the work rural hospitals are doing to improve access to maternal care for mothers living in rural communities, writes Priya Bathija, AHA’s vice president of strategic initiatives.

For the 20% of Americans who rely on rural hospitals for their care, the blue and white “H” is among the most reassuring signs they’ll ever see. It signals that expert care, help and healing is available and nearby. Even if that hospital is located dozens of miles away from the patient or family it serves, it is close enough to make a difference — to be a reliable partner in health care.

In two recent reports, the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) appears to use oversimplified analytic approach and draws overly broad conclusions about price variation and price growth variation. Their analysis does not address many of the key factors that can contribute to price variation and growth, while also ignoring broader trends in the health care market.