Op-ed: Facing unprecedented challenges, America's hospitals and health systems need help now

In an op-ed piece for Fierce Healthcare this past weekend, Stacey Hughes, AHA’s executive vice president for government relations and public policy, urged Congress to step up to the plate and support hospitals amid unprecedented fiscal challenges, including escalating costs and workforce issues, each compounded by inflation and the COVID-19 public health emergency. “Any one of these challenges is alarming on its own,” wrote Hughes. “But all of them occurring at once — in tandem with the highest inflation rate in nearly half a century — is a real crisis.”