Rick Pollack
President and CEO, AHA
Rick Pollack is president and CEO of the American Hospital Association (AHA), the nation’s largest hospital and health care system membership organization with nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health care systems, networks, and other providers of care.
Articles
Access to Care in Vulnerable Communities, AHA
Perspective: Protecting Access to Care in the Community
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently made several proposals that could reduce access to care in the community, particularly for vulnerable patients. We’ve urged CMS to withdraw these proposals for several reasons.
Opioids
Perspective: Moving Forward on Opioids
The opioid epidemic’s grip on our communities continues to be a major challenge. At the same time, we also see progress in addressing the problem.
Access & Health Coverage, Access to Care in Vulnerable Communities
Perspective: The Wrong Prescription for Access to Care
Having options is good. Having options when it comes to health care is essential. Patients need the flexibility to get the treatment they need in the setting that’s most appropriate and convenient for them. But a recent proposal by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services could jeopardize patients’ access to convenient care.
Paying for Health Care
Op-ed Wrongly Lays the Blame for High Costs on EDs
In times of distress, Americans turn to hospital emergency departments. They do so because they know that there they will find care – from simple stitches to sophisticated diagnostics to emergency surgery. And they know that, no matter what, they will not be turned away.
Emergency Readiness
Perspective: Committing to Care and Preparedness
Our thoughts are with the women and men of the hospitals in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia now, and in the days to come, as they deal with this massive storm and its aftermath.
Regulatory Relief, Physician Self-Referral Law/Stark law
Perspective: Making Regulatory Relief Real
There is a lot of focus today on health care costs, and what can be done to contain them. One sure-fire strategy? Reduce the regulatory burden that is drowning providers in red tape and adding costs to the system.
Opioids
Perspective: Action Needed to Fight Opioid Epidemic
The health care community’s efforts alone are not enough to stem the tide of the opioid epidemic. We need more help from the federal government.
Trustee Services, Innovation/New Models of Care
Perspective: Trustees – A Key Ingredient in Innovation
One critical – and sometimes overlooked – ingredient to successful innovation and transformation: trustees. Effectively responding to the forces shaping, and sometimes disrupting, the health care field requires an engaged, nimble and prepared board.
Regulatory Relief
Perspective: The Role of Regulatory Relief in Improving Affordability
We need our government partners to step up and help reduce costs – especially the costs related to the heavy administrative burden faced by health care providers, costs unrelated to delivering patient care.
Physician Self-Referral Law/Stark law, Hospital Value-based Purchasing
Perspective: Time to Make Stark Work for 21st Century Care
We’ve collected examples and outlined how the physician self-referral, or “Stark,” law impedes coordination and shared concrete recommendations for modernizing the law with legislators and regulators. Now, we’re pleased to see that there is a growing consensus and momentum among legislators and regulators on both sides of the aisle that some changes are needed.