News

Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.004% in March to a seasonally adjusted 5,261,500 people, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. That's 200 more people than in February and 90,900 more than a year ago.

The Department of Health and Human Services created a page with resources for health care planning and infectious disease, among others.

AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack responded to a recent commentary in the Washington Post that suggested hospital consolidation has contributed to fewer beds being available to treat COVID-19 patients.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began publishing limited racial and ethnic data on coronavirus cases.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued updated guidance on providing essential non-COVID-19 care to patients without symptoms of COVID-19 in regions with low and stable incidence of the virus.

America’s health care workforce is among the most highly skilled and highly trained in the world. But the COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges and exacerbated others.

Even in normal times, health care delivery is hard and tiring work. The COVID-19 pandemic makes it more critical than ever that our care providers find ways to recharge and keep up the fight.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a proposed rule for the inpatient rehabilitation facility prospective payment system for fiscal year 2021.

A federal appeals court heard oral arguments in the government’s appeal of its loss in a legal challenge to the 2019 reduction in site neutral payment brought by the AHA, joined by the Association of American Medical Colleges and several AHA member hospitals.

The Food and Drug Administration encouraged those who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate plasma for the creation of convalescent plasma, an antibody-rich investigational therapy that may help others fight the disease.

The Food and Drug Administration issued guidance expanding the use of telethermographic systems for triage use during the public health crisis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has collated in one location training materials for health care professionals during the COVID-19 emergency, including webinars, videos and online courses.

The FEMA Healthcare Resilience Task Force has released a COVID-19 Hospital Resource Package, which offers tools to help hospitals prepare for and respond to the pandemic.

The Food and Drug Administration announced that spun synthetic swabs made from materials like polyester can be used for test patients for COVID-19.

The Department of Health and Human Services will partner with more than a dozen biopharmaceutical companies and the European Medicines Agency to prioritize vaccine and drug candidates, streamline clinical trials and coordinate regulatory processes to respond to the pandemic, the National Institutes of Health announced.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has created two new Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System codes (U0003 and U0004) to bill under Medicare Part B for clinical diagnostic laboratory tests that use high-throughput technologies to detect and diagnose the novel coronavirus.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued guidance implementing legislative provisions specific to enhanced federal funding for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program.

President Trump announced guidelines that states and localities can use for easing social distancing restrictions, including criteria for employers, individuals and hospitals.

As the COVID-19 surge wanes in different parts of the country, the AHA, American College of Surgeons, American Society of Anesthesiologists, and Association of periOperative Registered Nurses today released a roadmap for safely resuming elective surgery.

This week, the women and men of America’s hospitals and health systems are continuing their heroic efforts caring for tens of thousands of COVID-19 patients.