Margaret Dahl
Chair, AHA Committee on Governance, and Trustee, WellStar Health Network ACO
Margaret Dahl is chair of the American Hospital Association Committee on Governance and a trustee of WellStar Health Network ACO in Marietta, Ga.
Articles
Governance Effectiveness
Telling the hospital story: Advancing Health in America
The American Hospital Association has developed a toolkit to help engage the community and share your story.
Affordable Care Act, Delivery System Transformation, Financial Oversight, Governance Effectiveness, Legislation and Legislative Advocacy
New payment models coming thick and fast
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last year set the ambitious goal of tying 30 percent of Medicare fee-for-service payments to quality or value through alternative payment models by the end of 2016 and 50 percent by the end of 2018.
The agency announced in May that it had already met the 30 percent threshold through the implementation of models such as as Medicare accountable care organizations, the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative and the Comprehensive Primary Care initiative, among others. And the pace of adoption is only set to accelerate.
Governance Effectiveness, Legislation and Legislative Advocacy
Keep Hospitals in Mind This Election Season
The political conventions are over, and election season is in full swing. Candidates for office at nearly every level of government will spend the next two months talking to voters and trying to persuade them that they are the best choice.
As you encounter candidates for Congress — whether at town hall meetings, fundraisers or community events — you have an indispensable opportunity to ask them how they would support patients and health care in your community.
Governance Effectiveness, Care Delivery, Quality & Patient Safety
Combating Prescription Opioid Abuse
The women and men who work in America’s hospitals witness the toll of the opioid epidemic on patients and the health of their communities every day.
While prescription opioids can be a safe and necessary part of pain management, these drugs also carry serious risks of harm because of the potential for addiction, misuse, overdose and death. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics indicate that more than 14,000 people died from overdoses involving prescription opioids in 2014 in the United States.
Governance Effectiveness, Health Information Technology (HIT), Leadership, Leveraging Technology
Staying ahead of cybersecurity risks
Hospitals and health systems are under attack from new forms of viruses every day.
But some of these viruses don’t attack the human body. As recent news reports have highlighted, hospitals and health systems are now prime targets for malicious malware viruses that seek to infiltrate hospitals’ computer networks.
Governance Effectiveness, Care Delivery, Strategic Planning
Partnerships for Behavioral Health
Hospitals and health systems are working hard to achieve the Triple Aim — improving the patient experience of care (both quality and satisfaction), improving the health of populations and reducing the per capita cost of health care.
Delivery System Transformation, Care Delivery, Quality & Patient Safety, Strategic Planning
Ways for hospitals to stay on top of behavioral health
One in four Americans experiences a mental illness or substance use disorder each year, and the majority of those also have a comorbid physical health condition. Hospitals provide essential behavioral health care services to millions of Americans every day. In recent years, the challenges of providing these behavioral health services have increased significantly.
Financial Oversight, Governance Effectiveness, Legislation and Legislative Advocacy, Physician Fee Schedule (PFS)/MACRA/QPP
Big Changes Ahead in Medicare Physician Payments
Last spring, Congress passed a sweeping law overhauling the way Medicare pays physicians. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 put an end to the flawed formula used to set physician payments and put them on a path toward value-based payment by tying an increasing percentage of physician pay to value and encouraging participation in alternative payment models.
Delivery System Transformation, Governance Effectiveness, Legislation and Legislative Advocacy, Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends
Board members encouraged to advocate on behalf of their hospitals
American Hospital Association leaders like to say that every day is advocacy day, and that there is no better advocate for your hospital than you, the hospital trustee.