America's Essential Hospitals

America's Essential Hospitals (formerly the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems) is an industry trade group that represents 300 hospitals that fill a safety net role in their communities. The association, a nonprofit (501(c)(6)) organization based in Washington, DC, formed in 1981 as the National Association of Public Hospitals.[1]

America's Essential Hospitals
Logo of America's Essential Hospitals
Formation1981
Typetrade association
HeadquartersWashington, DC
Membership
300 hospitals and health systems
LeaderBruce Siegel, MD, MPH
Websitewww.essentialhospitals.org

A board of directors and committees composed of member volunteers govern America's Essential Hospitals. The association lobbies at the federal level on Medicaid and other issues important to hospitals that care for large numbers of uninsured, underinsured, and other vulnerable patients.[2][3] In 2013, America's Essential Hospitals reported that it paid $120,000 in lobbying expenses to Holland & Knight.[4]

America's Essential Hospitals operates a nonprofit (501(c)(3)) research organization, Essential Hospitals Institute (formerly the National Public Health and Hospital Institute), which conducts various research and quality improvement activities. Institute projects have included the Essential Hospitals Engagement Network, one of 26 hospital networks in the federal Partnership for Patients program to improve patient safety and reduce avoidable readmissions.[5]

On June 20, 2013, the association announced that it had changed its name to America's Essential Hospitals and the name of its research arm to Essential Hospitals Institute. The new brand, the association explained, emphasized its members' relationship to vulnerable patients and, through trauma and other specialized care, communities at large.[6]

Activities

Member Characteristics Survey

America's Essential Hospitals annually surveys its members about various characteristics, such as patient ethnicity and race, operating margin, and amount of uncompensated care provided, and publishes aggregate findings in a report, "Essential Data: Our Hospitals, Our Patients." The most recent report[7], based on 2017 data, found that while the association's members represent about 5 percent of all U.S. hospitals, they:

  • provided 17.4 percent of all uncompensated care nationally, or about $6.7 billion;
  • delivered $5.5 billion in charity care;
  • treated a community of which three-quarters were uninsured or covered by Medicaid or Medicare;
  • accounted for more than a third of the nation’s level I trauma centers and nearly 40 percent of burn care beds; and
  • trained more than three times as many physician residents as other U.S. teaching hospitals.
  • served communities where 10 million people have limited access to healthy food, 23.9 million people live below the federal poverty line, 17 million are uninsured, and 360,000 are homeless;

References
  1. America's Essential Hospitals. About America's Essential Hospitals. Retrieved 2014-08-23
  2. Commins, John. Safety Net Executives Renew Call to Preserve DSH Payments. HealthLeaders Media. 2013-12-04. Retrieved 2014-08-23
  3. Cheney, Kyle. Experts suggest Medicaid expansion could enroll 8 million. POLITICO. 2013-12-13. Retrieved 2014-08-23
  4. Center for Responsive Politics. Lobbying spending database - America's Essential Hospitals, 2013. Retrieved 2014-08-23
  5. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Hospital Engagement Networks. Retrieved 2014-08-23
  6. Kravetz, Ayesha. Hospital association name change highlights essential services. FierceHealthcare, 2013-06-21. Retrieved 2014-08-23
  7. Clark, D, Roberson B, Ramiah, K. Essential Data:Our Hospitals, Our Patients. America's Essential Hospitals, 2019-04-11. Retrieved 2019-04-20

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