The American Hospital Association (AHA) published Tuesday a report aimed at lowering healthcare costs, improving access and enhancing the quality of care at hospitals and health systems across the U.S.
The “Making Healthcare More Affordable” report (PDF) contains five overarching actionable strategies and solutions aimed at improving individual and community health; transforming care delivery; reducing administrative waste; lowering drug and device costs and innovating solutions to improve care outcomes.
The organization notes affordability challenges are a “multifaceted issue” often involving redistribution of costs.
“Realizing genuine affordability gains at a systemic level will necessitate collaborative efforts among all stakeholders,” the organization said. “Thus, we call on purchasers, policymakers, technology companies, drug and supply manufacturers, and individuals to collaborate with us on these efforts.”
The organization notes six drivers behind health care costs in an accompanying infographic (PDF), including:
- More patients with greater complexity
- Care that cannot be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence
- Soaring input costs, led by drugs
- Administrative burden and middlemen
- Costs being shifted to patients by corporate insurers
- Inadequate payments for essential services
Solutions range across the overarching themes in the report. Improving overall health includes suggestions on increasing access to primary care and prevention and improving pricing transparency, while the organization highlights reducing regulatory friction as one factor to improve affordability.
“As the backbone of our health care system, hospitals and health systems are committed to delivering high-quality, accessible and affordable care in every community,” said Rick Pollack, AHA president and CEO, in a statement. “But hospitals cannot solve affordability alone. It will require everyone, drug companies, commercial insurers, suppliers, government, patients and others, to fix our outdated system. The strategies outlined in this report are actionable, achievable steps that can help lower costs and strengthen access to care for Americans across the country.”
The report comes as hospitals across the nation are facing increasing scrutiny on their role in the affordability crisis from legislators, competing industry groups and think tanks alike.
In April, CEOs of HCA Healthcare, CommonSpirit Health, NewYork-Presbyterian and ECU Health went before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee to discuss rising costs. The more than four-hour hearing also touched on Medicare’s site-neutral payment policy, in which the executives agreed to a “rational reworking” of such payments.
The April session followed a similar mid-March hearing at the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health.