American Health Lawyers Association
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The American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) is a non-profit professional association which works with legal issues in the healthcare field with around 12,500 members.[1] The AHLA was created on July 1, 1997, when the National Health Lawyers Association (NHLA) and the American Academy of Healthcare Attorneys (AAHA) combined into a single organization. The AHLA is headquartered at 1620 Eye Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20006-4010.
Mission
Its mission is "to provide a collegial forum for interaction and information exchange to enable its members to serve their clients more effectively; to produce the highest quality nonpartisan educational programs, products, and services concerning health law issues; and to serve as a public resource on selected healthcare legal issues."[1]
Formation
The roots of AHLA can be traced back to 1967 when the American Hospital Association (AHA) decided to start an association for hospital attorneys who desired a forum to communicate about healthcare issues.[2]
The Society subsequently grew and underwent several name changes, eventually to the American Academy of Healthcare Attorneys (the “Academy”). The final name change took place in 1983. The Academy ultimately grew to a membership of 3,300 attorneys, approximately one-third of whom were in-house counsel at hospitals, health plans, and other entities in American health care. The Academy remained a component of the AHA until it combined with the National Health Lawyers Association in 1997.
The National Health Lawyers Association (NHLA) was formed in 1971 as a nonprofit educational organization whose membership included health attorneys who represented hospitals, physicians, managed care organizations, home health agencies, and long term care facilities. Over time, the NHLA grew to over 8,500 members, producing educational programs and publications, including the Health Law Digest.
Beginning in 1996, leaders of both the Academy and the NHLA began talks on merging the two organizations and on July 1, 1997, the NHLA and the Academy merged. At first the combined organization was called the NHLA/AAHA, but in 1998 the name was changed to the American Health Lawyers Association.
