News

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Jan. 15 that 53.4% of people with Traditional Medicare are in an accountable care relationship with a provider, a 4.3% increase from last year. The agency said it is the largest increase since it began tracking accountable care relationships.

The Department of Health and Human Services and Drug Enforcement Administration published a series of rules Jan. 15 related to telemedicine prescribing of controlled substances, including a special registration proposed rule and a final rule on telemedicine prescribing of buprenorphine.

The Department of Health and Human Services Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center Jan. 8 released guidance on cybersecurity for telehealth applications. The guide highlights the challenges of securing telehealth platforms due to vulnerabilities that can expose them to a range of cyberattacks, such as data breaches, structured query language attacks, ransomware, phishing and more.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Jan. 13 released its standards for the health insurance marketplaces for 2026, including the issuers and brokers who assist marketplace enrollees. The final rule enhances CMS' authority to address and curtail misconduct by agents and brokers, such as fraudulent changes to an enrollee's health care coverage.

As AHA chair, Tina is committed to ensuring you as members feel heard, listened to and supported through the AHA so we can do what we do best: providing the very best care to our patients and to our communities.

In the third of this four-part conversation, three experts from Scripps Health talk through the day their organization experienced a cyberattack, the preparation playbook that leaders rapidly deployed and what comes first in responding to these types of critical situations.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health Jan. 10 announced a presumptive positive case of H5N1 bird flu in a child after they experienced symptoms of fever and conjunctivitis.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration Jan. 13 announced that it terminated efforts to establish a final COVID-19 safety standard to protect workers in health care settings.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Jan. 13 filed a lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission, saying changes made by the FTC to premerger notification rules under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act are “unnecessary and unlawful.”

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Jan. 10 proposed a 4.3% payment increase to Medicare Advantage plans for calendar year 2026, amounting to approximately $21 billion.

The AHA Jan. 13 launched a new television and multimedia advertising campaign highlighting how hospitals and health systems are there for all of life’s moments, 24/7/365, caring for patients and communities across the country. 

The AHA urged the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to update payment recommendations for hospitals, post-acute care facilities and physicians in advance of the commission's Jan. 16 public meeting. AHA urged MedPAC to issue a higher update than the current-law market basket update plus an additional 1% for the hospital inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems.

The Department of Health and Human Services has released its Strategic Plan for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Health, Human Services, and Public Health, a guide that seeks to clarify regulatory oversight, coverage and payment determinator processes for AI as well as refine existing regulatory frameworks to address the adaptive nature of AI technologies.

Total medical school enrollment has reached a new high of 99,562 students for 2024-2025, a 1.8% increase from the previous school year, according to data released Jan. 10 by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Highlights from the AHA's Advancing Health podcast include selections on obstetric services in rural communities and the growing role of chief wellness officers.

Prices for the top 25 brand-name Medicare Part D drugs have increased by an average of 98% since entering the market, according to a report released Jan. 9 by the AARP Public Policy Institute.

Thomas Edison once said, “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.”

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a webinar Jan. 16 at 1 p.m.

The AHA today released its 2025-2027 Strategic Plan, approved by the AHA Board of Trustees in November.

There were 91 suspected or confirmed norovirus outbreaks during the week of Dec.