AHA: Article does not tell full story about hospitals’ community investments

Feb 24, 2020 - 02:20 PM
AHA-comment

“The recent Modern Healthcare article ‘Top not-for-profit hospitals offer less charity care, study finds,’ does not tell the full story of how hospitals and health systems improve community health,” writes AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack in a letter to the editor published Saturday. “It also fails to mention the resources dedicated to caring for patients who do not have the ability to pay. The American Hospital Association’s latest publicly available report shows hospitals and health systems spent $41.3 billion on uncompensated care in 2018. Moreover, hospital and health systems’ commitment goes far beyond the four walls. According to a 2019 analysis, tax-exempt hospitals provided $95 billion in total benefits to their communities in 2016 alone — outweighing the $9 billion value of their tax exemption by a factor of nearly 11 to 

Related News Articles

Headline
Blog details why Anthem policy limits access to care
A blog by Noah Isserman, AHA director of health insurance and coverage policy, explains why Anthem’s nonparticipating provider policy limits patients’ …
Blog
Prioritize Protecting Patients' Timely Access to Care, Not Padding Insurer Margins
Public
Patients are best served when insurers act as transparent and reasonable partners, not when they invoke patient protection laws to justify payment strategies…
Headline
HHS launches competition to support community care hubs working with health care providers 
The Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living has launched the first phase of its Health at Home Challenge, a competition to…
Headline
MACPAC calls for increased transparency on AI-supported prior authorization 
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission approved recommendations it will issue to Congress in its June report on oversight and increased…
Headline
AHA pushes back on Families USA report
The AHA shared the following statement with the media in response to a report released May 7 by Families USA.   “This report is long on rhetoric and…
Headline
AHA urges Congress to advance policies that lower costs without reducing access 
The AHA submitted a statement for the record to the House Ways and Means Committee for its April 28 hearing with health system CEOs.In the statement, the AHA…