Ashley Thompson
Senior Vice President, Public Policy Analysis and Development
Ashley Thompson is the Senior Vice President of Public Policy Analysis and Development at the American Hospital Association.
Articles
Medicare, Hospital Ranking, Star Ratings
Puzzling Hospital Ranking Report on Unnecessary Services: Based on Incomplete Data, Omits Important Clinical Details
A recent report from the Lown Institute that ranks hospitals on what they deem to be unnecessary hospital services, tests and procedures attempts to make sweeping conclusions about hospital value based on data that are not only incomplete, but also not current.
Making Healthcare More Affordable, Price Transparency
The real story on health care costs is deeper than one cherry-picked statistic
A recent American Enterprise Institute blog on hospital prices fails to capture the full story on how hospitals and health systems have slowed price growth.
Population/Community Health
Working at all levels to improve community health
Ashley Thompson, AHA senior vice president of public policy analysis and development, shares some ways AHA is engaged in advocacy and public policy efforts to support national strategies and provide resources to advance community health.
Drug Prices
Drug companies continue to finger point
Drug companies are at it again. And their latest effort to divert the focus from the huge profits they pocket as drug prices rise is just as disingenuous as all of their previous attempts.
Quality & Patient Safety
America’s hospitals continue to share progress and identify ways of further improving care
Axios' The poor state of U.S hospital quality (December 1, 2018) gives an incomplete view on the state of quality and safety in America’s hospitals and health systems.
Site-Neutral Payment Proposals
Opinion piece in The Hill gets it wrong on site-neutral payment
A recent opinion piece in The Hill paints an inaccurate picture of CMS’s site-neutral payment proposal, which is both bad policy and clearly undercuts Congressional intent to protect payments for hospital outpatient clinic visits and expanded services at certain off-campus hospital departments from cuts.
Drug Prices
The Only Thing Transparent about PhRMA is Their Attempt to Blame Others for Rising Drug Prices
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) released yet another “report” in an obvious attempt to divert attention away from a problem of their own making: skyrocketing drug prices.
340B Drug Pricing Program, Advocacy & Public Policy
340B program working as intended, helping vulnerable patients and communities
A recent article in the New York Times, “A Little-Known Windfall for Some Hospitals, Now Facing Big Cuts,” gives a thoroughly inaccurate and misleading view of the 340B Drug Pricing Program.