The Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) granted Maryland’s hospitals their largest global budget increase in recent memory last week — a 3.59% increase in total revenue (3.28% per capita) for fiscal year 2020.​ The average hospital is expected to receive about 3.3% growth in total regulated revenue — or 3% per capita.​

A highly trained and fully engaged workforce is essential for Maryland’s hospitals as you strive to deliver the best clinical care along with a superior experience for patients. We know you face challenges filling in-demand positions, retaining good talent, combating workplace violence, and more.

Health care costs are up nationwide, but in Maryland, hospitals and health systems are controlling health care spending while improving the quality of care.​ That is an impressive win under our unique agreement with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which requires all payers — Medicare, Medicaid, employer-sponsored insurance plans, and others — to pay the same rates.​

May is Mental Health Month. Though we in health care don’t need a designated month to know that our nation — and our state — is in a behavioral health crisis.​

Maryland’s hospitals have steadily raised their patient experience scores. And, while our hospitals are improving faster than the nation, it has not been enough to close the gap. Delivering a consistently positive experience to all patients remains a challenge.​

Today marks the start of National Hospital Week. We at MHA want to share our appreciation for all of you – the more than 100,000 people who advance the health and well-being of 6 million Marylanders.​

We, the staff of MHA, rely on member input to fulfill our mission advocating for, and helping improve the performance of, Maryland’s hospitals and health systems. Throughout the year, we seek and receive your valuable input. Our multiple councils, task forces and work groups churn through serious issues – quality and safety of care, payment policy, behavioral health, medical liability, and much more.​

The past two weeks have seen a lot of Medicare-related news. For starters, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a series of proposed Medicare payment rules for federal fiscal year 2020, including:​

Today health care industry conversations often veer toward innovation. This isn’t new for research, clinical advancement, care delivery, diagnostic tests, surgical procedures and the like; but we now think about it in relationship to, well, just about everything.​

The 439th session of the Maryland General Assembly, which ended April 8, was a strong 90 days for our state’s hospitals and health systems.

Maryland’s hospitals embrace an innovative, far-reaching model of health care delivery that holds the promise to keep people healthier and reduce the overall cost of providing care for all.​ To help meet these goals, the state’s hospitals work to address the causes of poor health and disease risk in our communities, which often are rooted in how and where we live, learn, work, and play.

Heartbreaking news out of Parkland, Fla., and Newtown, Conn., in recent weeks — in which survivors and loved ones of those affected by violence died by suicide — have put the devastating effects of trauma in the spotlight.​ Maryland’s health care leaders are all too familiar with the long-term effects of violence, natural disasters, and other harrowing events. You see suffering in the community. You know that health care workers may experience serious secondary trauma while caring for patients.

Our nation has entered a new political season, and a vocal group of elected officials and presidential candidates are promoting a single-payer health care system, or Medicare for All.​ Hospitals in Maryland, and nationwide, support universal coverage. And we cannot deny that our current system has flaws. Though, as David Brooks explained in plain language recently, moving to a single-payer system run by the federal government is impractical.​

Last week we announced our esteemed colleague, Mike Robbins, will retire on June 30. Until that date, Mike will continue to lead all efforts on matters related to the Health Services Cost Review Commission. We are fully prepared to continue our high-energy regulatory advocacy work beyond Mike’s transition. Moreover, your changing needs have spurred us to alter our staff structure. We are strengthening our focus on quality and health improvement, efficiency in total costs of care, and the widening uses of data in health care management

Maryland’s hospitals are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of every person in your care.​ The advances in patient safety that you are striving for are needed urgently. As has been widely reported, nationally, more than 250,000 deaths each year may be caused by medical errors.​ Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 10-16, offers a chance to refocus on eliminating harm.

Hospitals have long been dedicated to the proposition that the people they serve must have health insurance, so that they can afford care and so that risks and costs are spread equitably. That enables people to live healthy, productive lives. However, about 1 in 20 Marylanders still lack health insurance. And because of efforts at the federal level to undercut the Affordable Care Act, the number of uninsured once again could rise.

Patient safety and the delivery of quality care are central to every decision Maryland’s health care leaders make. It comes as no surprise, then, that evidence is accumulating showing that our hospitals are making great strides in improving patient safety and raising quality.​

There is a crisis in our state, faced by an estimated one in five Marylanders: mental health and substance use disorders (SUD).​ That is why your Maryland Hospital Association (MHA) created the Behavioral Health Task Force. Fifteen months ago, that group – made up of hospital leaders and experts in mental health and SUD — presented the Roadmap to an Essential, Comprehensive System of Behavioral Health Care for Maryland.

Last week’s tragic shooting outside a Maryland hospital was yet another reminder that health care facilities — seen as safe harbors — are not immune to the violence that plagues our communities.​ That message also was driven home during a recent hospital visit, when executives told me that a spate of multiple-victim shootings in their normally quiet county had truly shaken associates and affected their work performance. The CEO of another hospital lamented countless assaults on hospital staff by both patients and visitors.

Maryland is a national leader in health care, Governor Larry Hogan proclaimed during Wednesday’s State of the State address.​ He held up Maryland’s success under its unique health care financing model against what he described as the health care failures at the federal level.​