News

A recent Medicare Payment Advisory Committee discussion on consolidation within the health care field “presented a myopic view of the purported dangers of hospital mergers to the exclusion of their many benefits,” AHA said today in a letter to the commission.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today voted 18-5 to approve President’s Trump nomination of Stephen Hahn, M.D., to lead the Food and Drug Administration as commissioner.

Achieving the U.S. goal of reducing new HIV infections by 90% over 10 years will require accelerated efforts to diagnose, treat and prevent HIV, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Health Resources and Services Administration has announced a $20 million investment through the Addiction Medicine Fellowship program to increase access to board-certified addiction professionals who are practicing in underserved, community-based settings that integrate behavioral health with primary care services.

A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published today in JAMA Pediatrics reveals that nearly one in five adolescents aged 12-18 years, and one in four young adults aged 19-34 years, are living with prediabetes, a health condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. The condition increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, heart disease and stroke. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a Dec. 3 call at 1:30 p.m. ET on its final rule requiring hospitals to disclose payer-specific negotiated rates effective Jan. 1, 2021.

Smarter, more efficient, more convenient. These goals are shaping transformation at hospitals and health systems throughout the country.

A federal judge in Oregon yesterday granted a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking, until litigation is resolved, a presidential proclamation requiring most individuals seeking to enter the United States via an immigrant visa to have approved health insurance coverage within 30 days of entry.

U.S. life expectancy increased by almost 10 years between 1959 and 2016, but the increase slowed before reversing in 2014 as deaths from drug overdoses, suicides and various organ system diseases rose among working-age adults.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a Dec. 3 call on its final rule requiring hospitals to disclose payer-specific negotiated rates effective Jan. 1, 2021.

CMS is accepting applications to participate in the Primary Care Initiative’s professional and global direct contracting options in calendar year 2020.

Critical access hospitals that did not achieve meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology in the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program for the 2018 reporting period can apply through Dec. 2 for a hardship exception to avoid a 2018 payment adjustment.

More than 900,000 veterans used the Department of Veterans Affairs’ telehealth services in fiscal year 2019.

The Food and Drug Administration today announced a voluntary pilot program to expedite approvals of certain changes to ethylene oxide sterilization processes and facilities.

In a three-year study of Medicare data from hospitals in Texas, patients receiving care from hospitalists whose schedules permitted continuity of care had lower mortality, readmissions and costs 30 days after discharge and were more likely to be discharged directly home.

The National Health Law Program and other groups Friday filed a class action lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services for approving a Section 1115 waiver for New Hampshire that requires certain adults to work to maintain Medicaid coverage, among other changes.

Over the past two decades, hospital and health system leaders have “heeded the call” of the 1999 Institute of Medicine report “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System,” AHA leaders write today in FierceHealthcare.

Lawrence “Lorry” J. Massa, who had a 40-year career in health care, including leading the Minnesota Hospital Association as president and CEO for nearly 11 years until his retirement in September, died Nov. 22. He was 65.

Tomorrow’s health care leaders can get a big boost from a new AHA program designed to develop and accelerate their ability to successfully lead America’s hospitals and health systems into the next decade and beyond.

Non-profit hospitals are experiencing more bad debt (unpaid bills) after an initial decline following Medicaid expansion in 2014.