News

States may apply until Jan. 20 for grants to implement and enforce certain market reforms and consumer protections to strengthen the private health insurance market under the Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced.

The House of Representatives passed by voice vote the Bipartisan Solution to Cyclical Violence Act (H.R. 5855), AHA-supported legislation that would create a $10 million Department of Health and Human Services grant program to fund violence prevention programs linked to trauma centers and examine their effect on re-incarceration and readmission rates.

Sarah Krevans, president and CEO of Sutter Health, will join AHA Board Chair Melinda Estes, M.D., Nov. 19 at 3:30 p.m. ET to discuss how hospitals can move from relief, recovery, and rebuilding to reimagining and innovation.

Join AHA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday at 2 p.m. ET for a Project Firstline conversation on caring safely for COVID-19 patients.

The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the Lucira COVID-19 All-In-One Test Kit, the first rapid test to detect the COVID-19 virus that one can administer completely at home when prescribed by a health care provider to individuals age 14 or older.

The Department of Health and Human Services issued clarifications sought by the AHA on two problematic reporting requirements for the Provider Relief Fund.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Dec. 1 will retire Hospital Compare and seven other health care quality compare websites, whose content has been transitioning since September to a single website called Care Compare.

The National Institutes of Health will fund six research projects to examine disparities in pregnancy-related complications and deaths among disproportionately affected women, including racial and ethnic minority groups, underprivileged women and those in underserved rural settings.

The Department of Health and Human Services has released a PPE Preservation Planning Toolkit to help organizations implement strategies to preserve personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Food and Drug Administration issued final guidance for health care providers and researchers using investigational COVID-19 convalescent plasma, defined as convalescent plasma that does not meet all conditions of the agency’s emergency use authorization or which is used under an investigational new drug application during the public health emergency.

The AHA, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association urged the Trump administration to share all critical information related to COVID-19 with the Biden transition team.

As we celebrate National Rural Health Day on Nov. 19, it’s important to recognize the work rural hospitals are doing to improve access to maternal care for mothers living in rural communities, writes Priya Bathija, AHA’s vice president of strategic initiatives.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, FBI and Department of Health and Human Services said they consider the recent ransomware threat to the health care sector to be credible, ongoing and persistent.

Albert Rizzo, M.D., chief medical officer for the American Lung Association and chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at ChristianaCare in Newark, Del., will discuss lung cancer screening to reduce mortality during an AHA Physician Alliance webinar Nov. 19 at 1 p.m. ET.

The Federal Trade Commission voted 5-0 to file an administrative complaint and authorize a federal lawsuit to block Memphis-based Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare from acquiring Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis and Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett from Tenet Health.

Sarah Krevans, president and CEO of Sutter Health, will join AHA Board Chair Melinda Estes, M.D., Nov. 19 at 3:30 p.m. ET to discuss how hospitals can move from relief, recovery, and rebuilding to reimagining and innovation

Moderna Inc. announced that its mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate against COVID-19 is 94.5% effective, according to early data.

For the 20% of Americans who rely on rural hospitals for their care, the blue and white “H” is among the most reassuring signs they’ll ever see. It signals that expert care, help and healing is available and nearby. Even if that hospital is located dozens of miles away from the patient or family it serves, it is close enough to make a difference — to be a reliable partner in health care.

ombating stigma is the missing element to the nation’s response to the addiction crisis, writes Matthew Stefanko, director of National Stigma Initiative for Shatterproof, a national nonprofit dedicated to reversing the addiction crisis in the U.S.

Two recent reports by the Health Care Cost Institute appear to use an oversimplified analytic approach and draw overly broad conclusions about price variation and price growth variation, writes Aaron Wesolowski, AHA’s vice president for policy research, analytics and strategy.