/ en Mon, 28 Apr 2025 01:38:46 -0500 Mon, 01 Aug 22 15:42:33 -0500 /news/headline/2022-08-01-aha-advertorial-community-benefits-distinguish-hospitals-and-health <p>Hospitals provide over $110 billion a year in community benefits, almost nine times the value of their federal tax exemption, according to an <a href="/lettercomment/2022-08-01-hospitals-work-many-ways-help-create-healthy-communities">AHA advertorial</a> today in the Wall Street Journal highlighting the data and programs that “distinguish hospitals from any other sector in health care.” <br />  <br /> “Beyond administering life-saving medical care to individual patients, all hospitals provide incomparable value to their communities by opening their doors to everyone who needs care, as well as working in partnership with others to improve and sustain the health of all of those in their communities,” writes AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack. “These efforts are as diverse as the communities they serve, and include neighborhood clinics, food banks and programs to address food insecurity, medical research, affordable housing, and education to improve health and well-being.”<br />  <br /> In an AHA <a href="/news/blog/2022-07-26-blog-article-charity-care-shortsighted">blog post</a> last week, Pollack criticized a recent article in the Journal for failing to recognize that charity care is only one part of a hospital’s total community benefit.<br />  </p> Mon, 01 Aug 2022 15:42:33 -0500 Economic Contribution of Hospitals /advisory/2022-03-31-new-resources-spotlight-and-reinforce-crucial-role-hospitals-serving-their <p class="text-align-center"><strong><a class="btn btn-primary btn-wide" href="/system/files/media/file/2022/03/aha-releases-new-resources-spotlight-reinforce-crucial-role-of-hospitals-and-health-systems-in-serving-their-communities-advisory-3-31-22.pdf">Download the Member Advisory PDF</a></strong></p> <p>As we enter the third year of the pandemic, hospitals, health systems and their teams continue to serve on the front lines battling COVID-19 while also providing many services and programs to promote health and wellness within their communities. Despite the countless challenges they have faced, the dedication and passion to patient care has never been stronger. Our hospital teams have remained steadfast in their commitment to provide care and improve health.</p> <p>The AHA has been privileged to hold conversations with caregivers across the country about their experiences during the pandemic. It is important that their voices are heard and AHA is honored to spotlight and share their powerful stories through a series<a href="/workforce/videos" target="_blank"> videos as part of our #WeAreHealthcare effort</a>.</p> <p>Hospitals and health care workers have stood strong for their communities during the pandemic, and we want to continue to honor their significant impact, while also reinforcing the vital role that hospitals and health systems serve in our society every day.</p> <p><strong>As part of our Seizing the Conversation initiative to balance the public narrative through a visible and consistent drumbeat of examples that illustrate the crucial role hospitals play in their communities, the AHA calls on all hospitals and health systems to amplify our collective voice in better telling the hospital story.</strong></p> <p>With hospitals and health systems serving every corner of this nation, we urge you to raise your voice and share the “stories behind the hospital H” – the impact that extends well beyond inpatient care. Share examples of the programs you support and lead, the initiatives and events you host, and the many ways in which you advance the health and wellbeing of your patients and community.</p> <p>AHA will continue to spotlight member organizations and will use the following framework to help organize our efforts. We ask you to join us and take action by sharing your story.</p> <ul> <li><strong>Benefits to Your Community.</strong> America’s hospitals are meeting the health needs of their communities in many ways. Highlight the benefits you provide to the community. Spotlight charity care, health education programs, housing and healthy food programs, health screenings and transportation for patients who need a medical appointment, among other things.</li> <li><strong>Improving Access to Care</strong>. Hospitals across America help people get health coverage and ensure access to essential services. Highlight the actions your organization is taking to ensure care is there for patients.</li> <li><strong>Ongoing COVID-19 Care and Vaccination Efforts</strong>. Hospitals and health systems cared for millions of COVID-19 patients and led efforts to vaccinate their communities. Spotlight how your organization cares for your community and provides life-saving vaccines.</li> <li><strong>Improving Health and Wellness</strong>. Hospitals and health systems are a vital part of their communities and the services they provide extend well beyond just curing injury or illness. Highlight the many ways your hospital is advancing the health of your community, helping people get and stay healthy year round.</li> <li><strong>Research and Innovation that Benefits Patients</strong>. From using telehealth to improve access to care to using artificial intelligence to keep communities healthy and detect disease earlier, hospitals and health systems are using innovation to improve patient care. Spotlight your efforts that result in benefit to patients.</li> </ul> <h2>HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED</h2> <h3>Gather examples and tell your story</h3> <p>Use the framework above to organize your story-telling. Identify examples, photos, videos and other testimonials that spotlight the wide array of work in which your team members have been engaged to provide care for patients and advance health in your community.</p> <h3>Share your stories with AHA</h3> <p>AHA wants to help elevate the impactful work you do in your community. Please consider submitting examples of the many ways you benefit your community via <a href="http://www.aha.org/roleofhospitals" target="_blank">www.aha.org/roleofhospitals</a>.</p> <h3>Share your pandemic experiences</h3> <p>Listen to your team members, and give them an opportunity and platform to share their experiences during the pandemic. AHA would love to partner with you and spotlight testimonials of your amazing caregivers through our #WeAreHealthcare initiative.</p> <h3>Identify a hospital ambassador</h3> <p>AHA is working with a group of hospital and health system ambassadors to tell the hospital story through op-eds, audio news releases and other AHA-supported media opportunities.<a href="/2022-03-09-share-your-hospital-story" target="_blank"> Sign up and join us in this effort.</a></p> <h3>Deploy your social media channels</h3> <p>Tag the AHA, <a href="https://twitter.com/ahahospitals" target="_blank">@ahahospitals</a>, and use the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/myhospital?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#myhospital</a> so we can send a collective message about the work you do on behalf of patients and communities. Hospitals and health systems can help tell their story by sharing messages on social media using new graphics and other resources from a <a href="/system/files/media/file/2022/03/STCWorkforceDigitalToolkit_Members.pdf" target="_blank">new digital toolkit</a>.</p> <h3>FURTHER QUESTIONS</h3> <p>For questions, please contact Alicia Mitchell, AHA’s senior vice president of communications, at <a href="mailto:amitchell@aha.org" target="_blank">amitchell@aha.org</a>, or Emily Gustafson, AHA’s vice president of digital strategy and public education, at<a href="mailto:egustafson@aha.org"> egustafson@aha.org</a>.</p> Thu, 31 Mar 2022 14:29:52 -0500 Economic Contribution of Hospitals /news/headline/2020-07-02-health-care-jobs-increase-358000-june <p><span><span><span><span>The health care field added 358,000 jobs in June, increasing 2.3% to a seasonally adjusted 15.6 million, the Bureau of Labor Statistics </span></span><a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm"><span><span>reported today</span></span></a><span><span>. That’s the second monthly increase for the sector after losing 1.5 million jobs in April.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span>Office-based providers, such as physicians and dentists, continued to account for much of the increase. Hospitals added about 6,700 jobs in June, their first monthly increase since the beginning of the pandemic in March. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span>Home health also added jobs, while nursing and residential care facilities continued to lose jobs.</span></span></p> Thu, 02 Jul 2020 15:18:50 -0500 Economic Contribution of Hospitals /news/headline/2020-01-10-hospitals-add-8800-jobs-december <p>Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.17% in December to a seasonally adjusted 5,297,100 people, the Bureau of Labor Statistics <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm">reported</a> today. That's 8,800 more people than in November and 102,000 more than a year ago. Without the seasonal adjustment, which removes the effect of fluctuations due to seasonal events, hospitals employed 5,311,400 people in December – 10,700 more than in November and 104,000 more than a year ago. The nation's overall unemployment rate was unchanged in December at 3.5%.</p> Fri, 10 Jan 2020 14:37:09 -0600 Economic Contribution of Hospitals /news/headline/2019-12-06-hospitals-add-9900-jobs-november <p>Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.19% in November to a seasonally adjusted 5,283,200 people, the Bureau of Labor Statistics <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm">reported</a> today. That's 9,900 more people than in October and 94,300 more than a year ago. Without the seasonal adjustment, which removes the effect of fluctuations due to seasonal events, hospitals employed 5,295,500 people in November – 15,800 more than in October and 96,900 more than a year ago. The nation's overall unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point in November to 3.5%.</p> Fri, 06 Dec 2019 14:52:07 -0600 Economic Contribution of Hospitals /news/headline/2019-12-05-cms-national-health-spending-46-2018-hospital-spending-slows <p>U.S. spending on health care grew 4.6% in 2018, slower than the 5.4% overall growth in the economy but up from 4.2% in 2017, largely due to reinstatement of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance tax after a one-year moratorium included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01451">reported</a> today. Medicare, Medicaid and private coverage all experienced faster spending growth. The net cost of health insurance (comprised of non-medical insurance expenses like administration, taxes and underwriting gains and losses) increased 13.2%, up from 4.3% in 2017, driven largely by the health insurance tax reinstatement. Spending for hospital care grew 4.5%, down from 4.7% in 2017 due to slower growth in the use and intensity of hospital services. Spending for physician and clinical services grew 4.1%, down from 4.7% in 2017, while spending for retail prescription drugs grew 2.5%, despite increases in the use of generics. Retail drug spending does not include the cost of drugs administered in hospitals. The share of the economy devoted to health care spending fell to 17.7% from 17.9% in 2017. </p> Thu, 05 Dec 2019 15:21:22 -0600 Economic Contribution of Hospitals /news/headline/2019-11-01-hospitals-add-2100-jobs-october <p>Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.04% in October to a seasonally adjusted 5,270,600 people, the Bureau of Labor Statistics <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm">reported</a> today. That's 2,100 more people than in September and 91,300 more than a year ago. Without the seasonal adjustment, which removes the effect of fluctuations due to seasonal events, hospitals employed 5,277,800 people in October – 7,800 more than in September and 92,500 more than a year ago. The nation's overall unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage point in October to 3.6%.</p> Fri, 01 Nov 2019 14:51:38 -0500 Economic Contribution of Hospitals /news/headline/2019-10-04-hospitals-add-8100-jobs-september <p>Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.15% in September to a seasonally adjusted 5,267,000 people, the Bureau of Labor Statistics <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm">reported</a> today. That's 8,100 more people than in August and 101,500 more than a year ago. Without the seasonal adjustment, which removes the effect of fluctuations due to seasonal events, hospitals employed 5,268,100 people in September – 6,000 more than in August and 102,800 more than a year ago. The nation's overall unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percentage point in September to 3.5%.</p> Fri, 04 Oct 2019 14:52:41 -0500 Economic Contribution of Hospitals /news/headline/2019-08-02-hospital-jobs-decline-2100-july <p>Employment at the nation's hospitals fell by 0.04% in July to a seasonally adjusted 5,238,900 people, the Bureau of Labor Statistics <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm">reported</a> today. That's 2,100 fewer people than in June and 93,100 more than a year ago. Without the seasonal adjustment, which removes the effect of fluctuations due to seasonal events, hospitals employed 5,242,500 people in July – 900 more than in June and 91,100 more than a year ago. The nation's overall unemployment rate was unchanged in July at 3.7%.<br />  </p> Fri, 02 Aug 2019 14:11:23 -0500 Economic Contribution of Hospitals /news/headline/2019-07-08-hospitals-add-11200-jobs-june <p>Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.21% in June to a seasonally adjusted 5,244,900 people, the Bureau of Labor Statistics <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm">reported</a> Friday. That's 11,200 more people than in May and 105,500 more than a year ago. Without the seasonal adjustment, which removes the effect of fluctuations due to seasonal events, hospitals employed 5,243,800 people in June – 26,800 more than in May and 105,800 more than a year ago. The nation's overall unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage point in June to 3.7%.</p> Mon, 08 Jul 2019 14:31:39 -0500 Economic Contribution of Hospitals