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It's All About Coverage
This week's report by the Congressional Budget Office scoring the revised American Health Care Act does not demonstrate any remedy to the core problem the original proposal would have created, namely that 23 million more Americans would lose health insurance by 2026 (a reduction of 1 million from the previous version). In addition, the $300 billion cut from hospitals to help fund Affordable Care Act coverage expansion would not be restored.
Put another way, the AHCA as written would result in hundreds of thousands of Marylanders losing health coverage, despite the addition of several billion dollars to help states fund high-risk pools. This will drive up the cost of health care for everyone. As Marylanders lose their health coverage, the cost of uncompensated, or "charity," care gets passed on to everyone in the form of higher health care costs and higher insurance premiums.
Maryland in particular is threatened in another way: Because our All-Payer Model depends on Marylanders getting the right care, at the right time, in the right setting, if access to that care is diminished, the system is not sustainable and more Marylanders will turn to hospital emergency departments as their only health care option. In the past three years, hospitals have reduced admissions by more than 40,000 and outpaced the nation in cutting readmissions, reducing the rate by 11 percent.
Maryland's hospitals are leading the nation in transforming health care, and your success is in jeopardy if patients cannot be thoughtfully directed to the right care setting because broad-based coverage is swept away.
U.S. Senate leaders, who could consider the House iteration of the American Health Care Act, have said they are working on another version of health care reform that could look quite different from what the CBO scored this week. But no matter what bill is up for debate, hospitals will continue to oppose any bill that decimates health care coverage, to ensure that hospitals can continue to deliver care to the patients and communities entrusted to them.
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Register Now for MHA's Annual Membership Meeting
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MHA's 2017 Annual Membership Meeting -
Transformation - will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore on June 12 and 13 and is designed for senior leaders of Maryland's hospitals. We'll begin with
David Brooks, the bestselling author and conservative columnist for
The New York Times and a regular contributor to NPR's All Things Considered and PBS NewsHour. Brooks will share his views on the new Trump administration, its impact on health care, and how both the immediate and long-term future might change. Next up is
Rick Pollack, President and CEO of the American Hospital Association, who will bring his front-line Capitol Hill expertise as he discusses how the association is working with federal lawmakers and the Trump administration to protect hospitals' and patients' interests. We will then hear from
Dr. David Wolf, NASA astronaut, doctor, engineer and inventor, who will share his thoughts on leadership, motivation, innovation, and how to apply these values in every setting, whether it's hundreds of miles above the Earth or in a hospital emergency department. Click
here to view the annual meeting brochure.
The
registration deadline is June 5. We look forward to seeing you there.
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Final Care Alert Sprint Webinar
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Given the Health Services Cost Review Commission's emphasis on sharing care coordination information via CRISP, MHA partnered with CRISP to launch a Care Alert Sprint. The six-month initiative was designed to provide hospital teams with opportunities to share how care alerts are being used and what has worked to transmit care alerts quickly and efficiently. On April 26, MHA held an in-person Learning Collaborative Summit. All slides and material from this session, as well as previous webinars, are available on
MHA's website. The initiative concludes with a "Lessons Learned & Sustainability" webinar on June 14, 2017. Participants can register
here.
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Participation in "Hospitals Against Violence" Initiative Encouraged
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The American Hospital Association has designated June 9 as #HAVhope Friday: A National Day of Awareness to focus attention on ending violence within hospital walls and our communities. To get started, take a look at
AHA's digital toolkit, which details different ways hospitals can participate. Support involves sharing photos of your colleagues and community supporters holding hands, along with a short description of your commitment to combating violence through social media using
#HAVhope.
Here are a few examples of tweets AHA encourages hospitals to use.
- On June 9, take a stand against violence in your community. Join us and #HAVhope <link to this video from AHA>
- We join @AHAhospitals in highlighting the great work being done in communities across America to address violence http://owl.li/7mBf305WQoc #HAVhope
- Violence impacts nearly every community in America. Learn what some hospitals are doing to combat it http://owl.li/qdPo304dtm4 #HAVhope
On May 31, the
Hospitals Against Violence initiative will host a webinar on how hospitals and health systems are using intervention programs to combat community violence. Linnea Ashley, managing director of the National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs, will explain these hospital-based programs and their benefits.
Click here to register for the 3 p.m. webinar.
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Staff Morale and Safety (Quality)
A recent article in
Hospitals & Health Networks cited Don Berwick's
7 Roadblocks to Improving Patient Safety, isolating two items as integral to success in this arena: changing reimbursement and workforce morale.
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Prime Offers Solutions for Market Analyses, Intelligence and Forecasting
Prime's affiliate, MedAssets, has acquired Sg2, a leading provider of health care market intelligence, strategic analytics and clinical consulting services. Sg2 delivers an easy access platform of predictive analytics and consulting services that helps more than 1,400 hospitals and health systems - from small community hospitals to large integrated delivery networks - understand current and future market dynamics and capitalize on opportunities for growth and performance.
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AHA Shares Views on ACA Repeal/Replace Legislation With Senate Committee
The American Hospital Association on Thursday shared with the Senate Finance Committee its views on legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
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WJLA, May 20
Baltimore Business Journal, By Morgan Eichensehr, May 22
Infection Control Today, May 22
Capital Gazette, By Amanda Yeager, May 23
The Baltimore Sun, By Andrea K. McDaniels, May 23
The Baltimore Sun, By Alan Fram and Ricadeo Alonso-Zaldivar, May 24
WYPR, By Tom Hall and Bridget Armstrong, May 24
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THANK YOU TO OUR 2017
ANNUAL MEETING SPONSORS
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