News

Health leaders from across the U.S.

The Department of Health and Human Services has renewed the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration for another 90 days effective April 21. The extension will help hospitals and health systems combat COVID-19 in their communities. 

President Biden announced that the nation has administered its 200 millionth COVID-19 vaccine dose, a milestone reached earlier than projected when vaccines were first authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration.

The AHA shared with Senate and House leaders the association’s recommendations for infrastructure investments that should be included in an upcoming legislative package to ensure hospitals and health systems are fully equipped to care for their communities now and into the future, as well as respond to any future public health emergency.

A study published this month in Health Affairs on the charity care provided by tax-exempt hospitals fails to recognize that charity care is only one part of a hospital’s total community benefit, writes AHA General Counsel Melinda Hatton.

ChristianaCare, based in Wilmington, Del., and Highmark Health announced a joint venture to develop and deploy data- and technology-driven solutions and virtual capabilities to improve health outcomes, efficiency and experience for their patients, plan members and providers. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services granted certain quality reporting exceptions to Texas acute-care hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, prospective payment system-exempt cancer hospitals, inpatient psychiatric facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals and skilled nursing facilities in counties affected this year by severe winter storms.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will award a record $80 million in navigator grants to help consumers enroll in health coverage through the federal health insurance marketplaces in plan year 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.

Alvin Hoover, CEO of King’s Daughters Medical Center in Brookhaven, Miss., looks back at a year of challenges wrought from COVID-19, including the system’s strategic and operational shifts, issues facing rural providers, and the joy of distributing vaccines to the community.

The AHA presented two federal hospital leaders with 2020 awards recognizing their outstanding service to the health care field. Air Force Brig. Gen. John Bartrum, mobilization assistant to the deputy surgeon general, received the Award for Excellence. Air Force Lt. Col. Jason Richter, medical support squadron commander and medical group administrator at Aviano Air Base Ambulatory Surgical Center in Italy, received the Special Achievement Award

The AHA joined #FirstRespondersFirst, the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, American Medical Association, American Nurses Foundation and Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare in launching All In: Wellbeing First for Healthcare, a call to action for health care organizations to prioritize workforce well-being. 

What was once a small but mighty contingent of health care systems providing “hospital-at-home” care before the pandemic has grown into a larger movement. With this model, hospitals across the country are “admitting” patients to their own homes for acute care with excellent results.

The Environmental Protection Agency last week presented AHA’s American Society for Health Care Engineering with its 2021 Partner of the Year—Sustained Excellence Award, the program’s highest honor, for its long-term commitment to fighting climate change and protecting public health through energy efficiency. 

As part of National Minority Health Month (April), AHA shares takeaways from a conversation with the Henry Ford Health System and Islamic Center of America about their collaboration to increase COVID-19 vaccinations in the Muslim community around Detroit. 

The Accelerating COVID 19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) initiative will enroll up to 13,500 adults aged 30 and over in a Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate whether certain drugs approved for other conditions safely and effectively treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19, the National Institutes of Health announced. 

A recent Health Affairs Blog post by physicians “gives an incomplete account of the implications of allowing new and expanded physician-owned hospitals to bill Medicare and Medicaid,” writes Shira Hollander, AHA senior associate director of policy.

Four in 10 transgender women surveyed in seven U.S. cities in 2019-2020 were HIV positive, including nearly two-thirds of African American/Black and one-third of Hispanic/Latina respondents, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The AHA and Black Coalition against COVID April 21 at 7 p.m. ET will host a town hall on enhancing the opportunities for rural health care providers, public health organizations and rural health advocates as they advance COVID-19 prevention guidance, vaccine acceptance and vaccine administration. 

The Food and Drug Administration revoked the emergency use authorization that allowed for the investigational monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab, when administered alone, to be used for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults and certain pediatric patients. 

Health care providers designated as health center “look-alikes” by the federal Health Center Program may apply through May 14 for a portion of $145 million in grants to advance equitable access to COVID-19 vaccination, testing and treatment in underserved and vulnerable populations, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.