MHA Activities

The Coalition to Strengthen America’s Healthcare released a new advertisement, "Every Second Counts," which can be seen on television and digital outlets.

ROCKPORT, ME (June 19, 2024)--Christina “Chrissi” Maguire, BS/BA, MHA, chief executive officer of Mount Desert Island Hospital, was installed as chair of the Maine Hospital Association Board of Directors on Wednesday night at the Association’s Summer Forum held at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.

Husson University and St. Joseph's College of Maine each offer MHA members discounts on courses, non-capped programs and degrees. 

Currently, 27 Maine hospitals qualify for the 340B Drug Discount program and receive a collective benefit estimated to be $356 million a year.  Eliminating the 340B benefit would have a devastating impact on hospital financial health.
 
 

Violence in hospitals is unacceptable. Hospitals need to be safe spaces for staff and patients. MHA has developed resources to assist member hospitals with mitigating workplace violence through advocacy, training, and education.

Crystal Landry, RN, chief executive officer of Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln, was installed as chair of the Maine Hospital Association Board of Directors on Wednesday night at the Association’s Summer Forum at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.

Kieran Kammerer, MD, physician and medical director, MaineGeneral pediatric practices is the Maine Hospital Association’s 2023 Caregiver of the Year.

The Legislature's Labor Committee is considering LD 1639, which would implement rigid nurse to patient ratios in hospitals.  This legislation would increase the cost of healthcare in Maine, limit access to hospital care, and decrease hospital quality. 

Maine hospitals are facing shortages in the availability of qualified staff. These shortages are particularly acute with respect to clinical staff, where the aging of the workforce and the increased statewide competition for staff have significantly challenged hospitals in their efforts to recruit and retain qualified, experienced healthcare professionals. This page includes resources to help people access training and employment in healthcare. 

Most healthcare information is digitized, accessible, and shareable thanks to several technology and
policy advances making interoperable, electronic health record systems widely available. In 2016,
the 21st Century Cures Act made sharing electronic health information the expected
norm in health care by authorizing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to identify,
“reasonable and necessary activities that do not constitute information blocking.” The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s 2020 Cures Act Final Rule established information blocking exceptions to implement the law.

The Maine Department of Health & Human Services has updated the forms that hospitals must use to apply to involuntarily commit a patient. 

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, created a way for consumers to buy affordable health insurance through health insurance exchanges, or marketplaces.  Subsidies, based on income, are available for these products.. The Maine Hospital Association has collected links to help consumers and providers learn more about these plans. 
 

The Maine Death with Dignity Law allows terminally ill adults who meet certain qualifications and who has been determined by the person's attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined in the Act, to make a request for medication prescribed for the purpose of ending the person's life. The law establishes the procedures for making these requests, including two waiting periods and one written and two oral requests and requires a second opinion by a consulting physician. The law requires specified information to be documented in the person's medical record, including all oral and written requests for a medication to hasten death.

Maine's rural hospitals are woven into the fabric of their communities.  But Maine's rural hospitals are not thriving.  They need immediate help. 

When you can get the highest quality services at a fair price, that translates to excellent value.  That’s exactly what Mainers get from hospitals here: excellent value.
 

Read about the federal programs vital to Maine hospitals. See MHA's 2019 Federal Issues document.

We urge you to use our web-based platform called  MEHospitalJobs.com which is part of the HospitalCareers network consisting of more than 20 hospital associations throughout the country.
 

In end-of-life care, the focus shifts from curative treatment to palliative care - addressing the physical, social, emotional, and spiritual needs of patients. Palliative care may be provided in a wide variety of settings, including the patient's home, a nursing home or hospital.

The Maine Hospital Association has sent Maine's Congressional delegation letters detailing the devastating impact that repealing the Affordable Care Act would have if an adequate replacement is not enacted. 

Letter to providers from the Department of Health & Human Services about enforcement of changes to the Prescription Monitoring Program

MHA has sent Maine legislative candidates Hospital Issues for State Candidates, a resource to educate them about the issues facing hospitals and their importance to their districts.
 

The Maine Department of Labor predicts that the employment in the healthcare sector will continue to grow in the state because of Maine’s aging population.
 

Resources, reports and legislation that help address Maine's growing opioid crisis.
 

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) is also known as the "permanent doc fix." It changes the way that Medicare pays physicians. 
 

The Maine Opiate Collaborative was formed after Governor Paul LePage held a summit in August 2015 to address the heroin/opiate epidemic in Maine.  This is the report of the three task forces and their recommendations.
 

This report contains federal advocacy concerns of Maine hospitals.
 

Medical error is not included on death certificates or in rankings of cause of death. Martin Makary and Michael Daniel in the British Medical Journal assess its contribution to mortality and call for better reporting.
 

The SHNAPP mission is to create the framework and approach for a shared health needs assessment (SHNA) that addresses community benefit reporting needs of hospitals, supports state and local public health accreditation efforts, and provides valuable population health assessment data for a wide variety of organizations concerned with the health of Maine’s communities and citizens.
 

There are multiple cuts to hospitals in the budget. The net total of the cuts to hospitals, including lost federal match, is at least $55 million per year.  This is a staggering amount of cuts to force hospitals to absorb and does not include the $10-20 million in proposed property taxes.