Legislation and Legislative Advocacy

The American Hospital Association (AHA) shares resources on health care legislation being considered by the U.S. House and Senate and legislative advocacy opportunities for hospitals and health systems.

In today's environment of change and transformation, some nonprofit hospitals and health systems are considering the possibility of selling to for-profit providers. A central concern for boards engaged in strategic deliberations about a potential sale is preserving the charitable mission,…
The community health needs assessment has the potential to be a transformative driver for understanding and addressing the health needs of a hospital’s patient population — and meeting population health goals.
AHA Resources Understanding board’s role in hospital–physician relations The American Hospital Association's Center for Healthcare Governance invites hospital executives, board members, clinical leaders and others to view a three-part webinar to help health systems continually…
Relationships between health systems and physicians have undergone significant change in recent years as the health care field transforms into a value-based system of quality, patient satisfaction and cost effectiveness. As health care organizations seek the clinical integration necessary to…
“I do not remember any of my political manoeuvres, the success of which gave me at the time more pleasure ...” — Benjamin Franklin, on his role in founding the first hospital in the American colonies   In May 1751, Dr. Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin created…
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…
Trustee Talking Points Trustee Talking Points This is the first of a three-part series on the rise of health insurance exchanges and what they mean for hospitals and health systems.
Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid. These two programs (including state funding) represent 37 cents of every dollar spent on health care in the United States. There are more than 54 million Medicare beneficiaries and 64 million Americans on Medicaid. As one of the…
Sir Winston Churchill once said, “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” No insight more appropriately describes a highly functioning compliance program. The very objective of a compliance program is to look for failures. Since health…