News

America’s hospitals and health systems support patient protections in the No Surprises Act, but the law and associated regulations offer only a partial cure, writes Ashley Thompson, AHA’s senior vice president for public policy analysis and development.

The American Medical Association published eight new Current Procedural Terminology codes for providers administering COVID-19 vaccines.

Joy Lewis, AHA’s senior vice president of health equity strategies and executive director of the Institute for Diversity and Health Equity, is a guest on InOn Health’s podcast, during which she discusses the role that hospitals and health systems play in striving for health equity, as well as opportunities to eliminate health disparities and AHA’s vision to support its membership in these efforts. 

The AHA is accepting applications for its 2022 Dick Davidson NOVA Award through Nov. 19.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services collected complete COVID-19 data from the vast majority of nursing homes in 2020, according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General.

According to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research, hospitalization for COVID-19 for children and adolescents increased four-fold in August in states with low levels of vaccination, compared with states with high levels.

The Department of Health and Human Services is making temporary changes to its distribution policies for monoclonal antibody therapies, with an eye on maintaining sufficient supply to meet current and future demand.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced the establishment of an Office of Climate Change and Health Equity.

The Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will have sufficient funds to pay full benefits until 2026, according to the latest annual report released by the Medicare Board of Trustees.

The Health Resources and Services Administration has released a fact sheet outlining specific acceptable personnel-related costs that can be covered by Provider Relief Fund dollars.

The AHA urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to maintain a focus on accountable and innovative health care over the next decade and beyond, providing the agency with several recommendations for meeting that goal to be implemented through CMS’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.

At the urging of the AHA, the State Department said that because of the emergence of the COVID-19 delta variant and continued demand for health care professionals, U.S. embassies and consulates were instructed that they may prioritize “as emergencies on a case-by-case basis the immigrant visa cases of certain health care professionals who will work at a facility engaged in pandemic response.”

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults with disabilities surveyed during February and March reported adverse mental health symptoms or substance use early this year, compared with about one-third of adults without disabilities, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alerted health care providers and the public to reports of severe illness associated with using products containing ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19.

The Department of Health and Human Services, in advance of the next ACA open enrollment period, announced a major expansion of the number of federally funded navigator organizations.

Commenting on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ home health prospective payment system proposed rule for calendar year 2022, AHA expressed support for CMS’ decision to forego action in CY 2022 on a behavioral adjustment to the Patient Driven Grouping Model case-mix system, while asking the agency to continue doing so until the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Cardinal Health recently recalled about 267 million prefilled saline syringes due to the potential for the plunger to reintroduce air back into the syringe and cause serious adverse outcomes.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology will work with technology leaders to develop a framework to improve security in the technology supply chain, the White House announced at a meeting with technology leaders. Microsoft, Google, IBM, Travelers and the cyber insurance provider Coalition will participate in the initiative.

A new video toolkit from AHA Team Training and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Project Firstline can help health care teams prevent and control infections, improve patient safety and bolster resiliency, writes Christopher Hund, senior director, programming and implementation, at the AHA Center for Health Innovation.

In this AHA Advancing Health podcast, Marie Cleary-Fishman, vice president of clinical quality for the AHA Center for Health Innovation, and Holly Geyer, M.D., internal medicine practitioner at the Mayo Clinic, discuss opioid stewardship and AHA-developed resources that offer hospitals and health systems guidance and information on partnering with patients, clinicians and communities to address the opioid epidemic.