News

The Food and Drug Administration’s draft guidance on blood glucose monitoring test systems for prescription point-of-care use would appropriately improve the safety and efficacy of the devices while recognizing their vital role in hospitals and health systems, AHA said in comments submitted yesterday.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released updated resources intended to clarify whether a hospital outreach laboratory qualifies as an “applicable laboratory” under the Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule and detailing related requirements for collecting and reporting private-payer rate clinical laboratory test payment and volume data.

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday issued a warning letter to CanaRx, a company that contracts with employers to provide select prescription drugs to employees, for facilitating the distribution of unapproved and misbranded drugs.

Eight in 10 U.S. adults say prescription drug costs are “unreasonable,” and one in four say their prescription medicines are difficult to afford, according to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a March 5 listening session on its proposed rule to promote electronic health information exchange.

Patients and their providers rely on these prescription drugs for treating injury and managing illness. Yet the drug companies and their shareholders have been treating America’s patients and providers like a piggybank.

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies today held a hearing to review what programs and strategies are working to address the opioid epidemic and where to focus future funding.

The House Education and Labor Committee’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections yesterday held a hearing on protecting health care and social service workers from violence in the workplace.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today updated its overall hospital quality star ratings at Hospital Compare and proposed future changes to the star ratings methodology in response to stakeholder feedback.

CMS has extended the deadline for hospitals participating in the Inpatient Quality Reporting and/or Promoting Interoperability Programs to submit data to receive a full payment update in fiscal year 2020.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today published answers to frequently asked questions about Section 1332 State Relief and Empowerment Waiver pass-through funding.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., today introduced the Medicare for All Act, legislation that would establish a national health insurance program to provide universal coverage to U.S. residents.

A new AHA infographic highlights the timeline for post-acute care reforms under the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014.

An estimated 29.7 million U.S. residents, or 9.2 percent, lacked health insurance when surveyed in the first nine months of 2018, according to preliminary data released today.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., yesterday announced the agency’s 2019 agenda to address the opioid epidemic.

The Senate Finance Committee today held the second in a planned series of bipartisan hearings on high prescription drug prices, which featured executives from drug companies AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer and Sanofi.

The House of Representatives last night passed by voice vote bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the national network of Poison Control Centers.

The FDA, CDC and CMS today launched the Tri-Agency Task Force for Emergency Diagnostics, which will work to rapidly develop and deploy diagnostic tests to clinical and public laboratories in an emergency.

Hospitals participating in the Inpatient Quality Reporting and/or Promoting Interoperability Programs must submit data by Feb. 28 to receive a full payment update in fiscal year 2020.

The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare will hold its 2019 Compassion in Action Healthcare Conference Sept. 8-10 in Boston.