In the summer of 2020, each of your hospitals and health systems signed on to MHA’s fieldwide commitment to racial equity. Since that time, your organizations have been hard at work improving diversity, equity, and inclusion. You have built-in new ways to address social determinants of health and improve the health of your patients, communities, and employees.

This year, for the first time in a century, contests for Maryland’s four statewide constitutional offices—governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and comptroller—will not have any incumbents on the ballot. Plus, 15% of state senators and 20% of delegates will not run for re-election.

As COVID-19 seems to have lost a bit of steam, the concerns left in its wake are real and need to be addressed – particularly financial matters and the workforce shortage. The reality is that one out of every four nursing positions in the state is open. At the same time, 57% of hospitals in Maryland had negative margins to date in rate year 2022. If you take out the one-time federal pandemic funding, we are looking at significant losses at every hospital in the state.

Last Wednesday, 30 hospital and health system presidents joined together at the first member meeting held at MHA’s office in Elkridge in more than two years. We joined together to talk about Maryland Model design innovations, financial policies, legislative successes, and the ongoing review of Association governance.