AHA pushes back on Health Affairs article examining the losses at large nonprofit health systems

In a blog published today, AHA refuted a number of suggestions that appeared in a recent Health Affairs column discussing what is behind the financial losses at large nonprofit hospitals. AHA said the authors and their financial backers have a complete misunderstanding of current economic realities, a preconceived narrative, and “ignore all the other realities that hospital and health system leaders are confronting every day to ensure access to care and programs for the patients and communities they serve.” Among other points, AHA highlighted that hospitals and health systems have seen massive expense increases related to the cost of providing care, and their largest payers — Medicare and Medicaid — underpay them significantly. In addition, hospitals and health systems are subject to commercial insurance companies increasing their use of policies that can cause dangerous delays to patient care and result in undue burden on health care providers while adding billions of dollars in unnecessary costs to the health care system.