A pair of recent articles by nationally renowned health care policy experts — one in Health Affairs and one in The New York Times — underscores points that CHA has been making for years around the unintended consequences of artificially capping spending on health care services without adequately considering the impact on access to care, jobs, and patients’ experience.
Through the end of this month, hospitals have a brief window to elevate their voices on two critical issues that could be decided in a matter of weeks.
A couple of weeks ago, the American Hospital Association stepped forward into its next chapter with the appointment of Steve Walsh as its next President and Chief Executive Officer. Walsh takes AHA’s reins following the announcement late last year that my friend and current President and CEO Rick Pollack would be retiring after nearly 50 years with the organization.
“You can’t go back and change the beginning but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ― C.S. Lewis
As California’s rural hospitals work to secure funding via the federal Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), a new tool is available to help them find partners to prepare their grant proposals.
This week, the Legislature advanced its own version of the state budget in a suite of bills that take critical steps toward shoring up health care across California.
The Wall Street Journal’s recent piece examining job growth nationally and in California (“Forget Tech and Hollywood. California Is Powered by Healthcare Jobs.” – May 11, 2026) noted that, “without [the health and human services sector], the state hosting the nation’s high-tech and entertainment hubs would have lost jobs … This gap between health-related and other parts of the economy proved greater in California than in any other U.S. state.”
It’s been a little more than four months since commercial insurance company executives were summoned to Capitol Hill for a congressional hearing in which they were probed on care denials, profit-taking, consumer affordability, and more.
Earlier this week, representatives from multiple hospitals and health systems had an important opportunity at the Capitol to speak directly with key lawmakers about the value of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and the dangers of severely curbing these tested and valuable supports for health care workers.
This week, during the 73rd annual celebration of National Hospital Week, we are reminded to pause to consider the special role that hospitals play in our own lives and in the lives of our loved ones.
