THE AHA DOESN'T ADVOCATE FOR PATIENTS. THE RECORD SHOWS IT NEVER DID.
The AHA spent $29 million lobbying in 2024, lost two federal lawsuits defending hospital secrecy, and stayed silent while its own board chairman's hospital sued patients for unpaid bills.
There is a specific kind of corruption that only works in the open.
It doesn’t hide. It doesn’t need to. It registers as a nonprofit, hires a communications team, builds a website that says it supports patients, and then spends nine figures lobbying to make sure nothing changes. It counts on the complexity of healthcare policy to keep anyone from connecting the dots. And for a very long time, it works.
IN TODAY’S ARTICLE:
The AHA sued twice to block price transparency. Lost twice. Then, the report caught hospitals still hiding prices.
Rick Pollack made $3.4 million running an organization that spent $7 million in Q1 2025 alone to stop reforms that could save Medicare up to $180 billion.
Fifteen years of lobbying to keep physicians from owning hospitals. Not because it harms patients. Because it reduces hospital profit margins.
The board chairman’s hospital sued patients more than 8,000 times in a single year. The AHA said nothing.
Glossary at the bottom of today’s article.
THE NUMBERS FIRST
The American Hospital Association (AHA) sits on $435 million in total assets. It collected $147 million in revenue last year and spent $169 million, a deficit absorbed by those reserves. CEO Rick Pollack took home $3,396,123 in 2023, up from $3,344,737 the year before. He’s announcing retirement by the end of 2026.
The AHA’s 16 most highly compensated employees earned $17 million combined in 2023. The organization spent $29 million lobbying the federal government in 2024. In just the first quarter of 2025, it spent $7 million more, a 17% increase from the prior quarter.
The tagline is “Advancing Health in America.”
Let’s look at what that means in practice.
The AHA spent $7 million in Q1 2025 to stop a reform that would save Medicare $180 billion. That's who's taking your money. 100,000+ physicians already know it. The question is: why would you read anything else?
