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American Hospital Association
PredecessorThe Association of Hospital Superintendents of the United States and Canada
Established1898; 126 years ago (1898)
TypeProfessional association
HeadquartersChicago, Illinois[1]
ServicesHealth care
Key people
  • Wright L. Lassiter III (Chair)
  • Richard J. Pollack
  • President & CEO)
[2]
Websiteaha.org

The American Hospital Association (AHA)[3][4] is a health care industry trade group. It includes nearly 5,000 hospitals and health care providers.

The organization, which was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1898, with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Washington, D.C.[5][6] is currently headquartered in Chicago.[1]

The organization has lobbied against Medicare for All proposals[7] and opposed "free care to low-income people who lack medical insurance."[8] It has also filed lawsuits to stop the U.S. government from requiring that hospitals make their prices public,[3] as well as lobbied against various proposals to reduce health care costs for patients and taxpayers.[9]

History

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In 1870, there were only about 100 general hospitals in the United States, but the institution was growing rapidly.[10] Hospital administrators formed an organization, The Association of Hospital Superintendents of the United States and Canada, which held its first meeting in 1899 in Cleveland, Ohio, where seven of the eight superintendents in attendance were based.[10]

The organization was promoted by publisher Del Sutton, whose journal, The National Hospital Sanitarium Record, was adopted by the group in 1900, gradually coming under control of the organization until it was replaced by the organization's own publication, The Modern Hospital.[11][12] Modern Hospital stopped in 1974.[13]

In 1906, the organization adopted its present name. Membership was 450 in 1908.[14] Records of early annual meetings detail some of the conflicts in the emerging hospital culture of Canada and the United States concerning whether hospitals should be governed by physicians or administrators, with non-professionals representing a heavy majority. [15] Current ongoing research into the cost-effectiveness of such a decision has focused on increasing disparities and conflicts of "business ethics and medical ethics" that affect "profitability versus patient and public health care,"[16] as administrative overhead makes up a disproportionate amount of health cost.[17]

The organization issued a statement in 1964 backing "service to all people" regardless of "race, religion or national origin."[18]

Activities

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Conventions

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The 1931 convention was held at the Automotive Building in Toronto

AHA, "the country's largest hospital group,"[19] held their first annual convention in 1898.[20]

Research and data bases

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In 1946 the AHA began its Annual Survey of US hospitals, building a data base of more than 6,500 hospitals combining more than 1,500 data fields including hospital organizational configuration, healthcare worker data, hospital resources, services provided and financial operations.[21]

In 1951, the association announced it would invest $500,000 (US) in an in-depth study of the financing and overall costs incurred by the nation's hospitals. The study, believed to be the first of its kind, attempted to unearth “…the best ways of offering high quality hospital care at the lowest cost” and included an assessment of the financial status of the nation's hospitals. The study was managed by a commission chaired by Gordon Gray, president of the University of North Carolina.[22]

Lobbying

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The organization has lobbied or been involved in lawsuits on a range of issues:

  • lobbied against Medicare for All proposals[7] and opposed "free care to low-income people who lack medical insurance."[8]
  • filed lawsuits to stop the U.S. government from requiring that hospitals make their prices public.[3][23]
  • During the coronavirus pandemic, the AHA, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association asked Congress to provide $100 billion in aid to hospitals for coronavirus testing and treatment.[24][25]
  • The AHA sued the Joe Biden administration in 2023 after the HHS restricted the ability of health care providers to sell the data of healthcare website visitors to third-parties on the basis that selling this data constituted HIPAA violation.[26]
  • The AHA lobbied against a bipartisan proposal to reduce the costs paid by patients and taxpayers for services at hospitals. The bipartisan proposal would have forced Medicare to pay the same price for the same health care service, whether it is provided in a hospital facility or a doctor's office, rather than pay twice as much for services provided by hospitals.[9][27]

Professional Membership Groups

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Professional Membership Groups (PMGs) are affiliated societies which fall under the umbrella of the AHA:

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "2018 Form 990 Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax" (PDF). Non-profit "tax return". guidestar.org. August 20, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  2. ^ "Richard J. Pollack, President and CEO" (PDF). AHA website. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 24, 2011. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c Kliff, Sarah; Sanger-Katz, Margot (June 23, 2020). "Hospitals Sued to Keep Prices Secret. They Lost". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  4. ^ "American Hospital Association Responds to Obama Administration". The New York Times. September 24, 2012.
  5. ^ "American Hospital Association - AHA". healthfinder.gov. US Dept. of Health & Human Services. August 12, 2010. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  6. ^ Goodman, Clifford (1988). "HEALTH Health Planning and Administration". In Council on Health Care Technology, Institute of Medicine (ed.). Medical Technology Assessment Directory: A Pilot Reference to Organizations, Assessments, and Information Resources. National Academies Press. pp. 524–8. ISBN 0-30903-829-4.
  7. ^ a b Pear, Robert (February 23, 2019). "Health Care and Insurance Industries Mobilize to Kill 'Medicare for All'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  8. ^ a b David Cay Johnston (August 6, 2004). "Nonprofit Hospital Agrees To Limits on Patient Fees". The New York Times.
  9. ^ a b DeGuzman, Phil Galewitz, Colleen (February 13, 2024). "In Fight Over Medicare Payments, the Hospital Lobby Shows Its Strength". KFF Health News.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ a b Vogel, Morris J. (1989). "Managing Medicine: Creating a Profession of Hospital Administration in the United States, 1895-1915". In Granshaw, Lindsay; Porter, Roy (eds.). The Hospital in History. Routledge. p. 244. ISBN 0415056039.
  11. ^ Vogel 1989, p. 245.
  12. ^ "American Hospital Association". The American Journal of Nursing. 24 (14): 1148–1151. 1924. doi:10.2307/3408808. JSTOR 3408808. S2CID 43979542.
  13. ^ "New Magazines Planned". The New York Times. February 4, 1974.
  14. ^ Vogel 1989, pp. 244, 245.
  15. ^ Vogel 1989, p. 252.
  16. ^ Connie M. Ulrich (May 25, 2014). "Doctors, Hospitals and Dollars". The New York Times.
  17. ^ "Wage gap between hospital executives and doctors is widening, study shows".
  18. ^ "Hospitals Back Integration". The New York Times. March 10, 1964.
  19. ^ "Surprise Medical Bills Cost Americans Millions". The New York Times. December 22, 2020.
  20. ^ "LINKS HOSPITAL, CHURCH AND SCHOOL; Dr. Bachmeyer Tells Association They, With School, Form Triad for Welfare of Man. OPENS 28TH CONVENTION 5,000 Delegates Are Welcomed at Atlantic City by Gov. Moore and Mayor Bader". The New York Times. September 28, 1926.
  21. ^ Aizcorbe, Ana; Baker, Colin (2018). Measuring and modeling health care costs. Chicago London: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226530994.
  22. ^ Freeman, Lucy (September 17, 1951). "2-YEAR SURVEY SET ON HOSPITAL COSTS; Authorities, at St. Louis Parley, Announce Study on Finances and Quality of Services GORDON GRAY TO DIRECT IT Trust Funds Supporting Work --How to Lower the Expense of Care Is a Major Goal Grants Will Finance the Study Smoke Routs Hotel Guests" (PDF). The New York Times.
  23. ^ Evans, Melanie (2019). "Hospitals Turn to Courts as Lobbying Fails to Block Price-Transparency Proposal". WSJ.
  24. ^ Herman, Bob (March 19, 2020). "Hospitals ask for $100 billion coronavirus bailout". Axios. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  25. ^ "Congress urged to allocate $100 billion to providers in next COVID-19 spending package". American Hospital Association.
  26. ^ "US hospital groups sue Biden administration to block ban on web trackers". Reuters. 2023.
  27. ^ "Hospital lobbying could sink effort to trim Medicare costs". Axios. 2024.
  28. ^ "ICU Assistant Nurse Manager job in Farmington, MO - Jobs ..." The New York Times. recognized for its design and function by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering
  29. ^ "Bylaws of the Association for the Healthcare Environment" (PDF). Association for the Healthcare Environment website. February 11, 2013 [1986]. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 23, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  30. ^ "Professional Membership Groups". AHA website. Archived from the original on August 10, 2011. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
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