News

The FBI recently raided the Florida offices of Pax Technology, a Chinese-owned company that makes point-of-sale payment terminals, because the devices may have been involved in cyberattacks on U.S. and European organizations, according to news reports.

The AHA sent a letter of support for the Preventing and Addressing Trauma with Health Services (PATHS) Act (S. 2873), a Senate bill that would provide grants for high-quality, culturally competent trauma support and mental health services for individuals in communities affected by gun violence. The bill would also support Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs intended to foster safer communities. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the False Claims Amendments Act (S. 2428), legislation that would make it harder to dismiss meritless lawsuits, among other problematic changes to the False Claims Act. 

The AHA released the latest edition of the COVID-19 Snapshot, underscoring the persisting challenges facing hospitals and health systems during the ongoing public health emergency

As a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee prepares to consider expanding COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to children aged 5-11, the AHA, American Academy of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital Association will webcast a panel discussion Nov. 8 at 2 p.m. ET on how pediatricians and hospitals can work with parents to build trust in the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine for children.

A documentary premiering in Washington, D.C., and opening in theaters Nov. 19 features doctors, nurses and patients at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, N.Y., as they navigate the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, Axios AM reports.

The Next Generation Accountable Care Organization model reduced gross Medicare spending in performance years 2016 to 2019 by $667 million (1.2%), according to findings released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics awarded $26 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to research and develop advanced infectious disease models and analytical tools.

The Department of Health and Human Services released an overdose prevention strategy focused on prevention, harm reduction, evidence-based treatment, and recovery support.

The AHA’s Hospitals Against Violence initiative, along with the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety, today released Creating Safer Workplaces: A guide to mitigating violence in health care settings.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted to recommend an emergency use authorization of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children age 5-11.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has named Henry Walke, M.D., to direct its Center for Preparedness and Response effective Nov. 7.

In a study comparing 6.4 million COVID-19 vaccine recipients with 4.6 million demographically similar unvaccinated persons, recipients of the Pfizer, Moderna or Janssen vaccines had lower non-COVID-19 mortality risk than did the unvaccinated comparison groups, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

A shortage of nurses and other workers are driving up costs for hospitals and will continue to erode their financial performance into 2022, according to a new report by Moody’s Investors Service on the impact of labor shortages and cost pressures on health care subsectors. 

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Tina Smith, D-Minn., and Reps. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., and Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., have introduced the Medicare Mental Health Inpatient Equity Act (S. 3061/H.R. 5674), AHA-supported legislation that would eliminate the Medicare program’s 190-day lifetime limit on inpatient psychiatric days in freestanding psychiatric facilities.  

Microsoft on Sunday posted an update on the latest activity by Nobelium, a Russian nation-state actor behind cyberattacks on SolarWinds customers in 2020.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on a number of bills to bolster the health care workforce, including the AHA-supported Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act (H.R. 1667).

A recent study published in JAMA Health Forum that examines CARES Act Provider Relief Funds allocated to health care providers misses the point of those payments and makes arbitrary choices about which payments to include, writes Ashley Thompson, AHA senior vice president for public policy analysis and development, in a new AHA blog post.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission posted updated and expanded technical assistance related to the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing questions about religious objections to employer COVID-19 vaccine requirements and how they interact with federal Equal Employment Opportunity laws. 

The Nebraska Hospital Association named as its president, effective Dec. 6, Jeremy Nordquist, who currently serves as government affairs director for Nebraska Medicine and has 20 years’ experience in advocacy at the state and federal level. Laura Redoutey, NHA president since 2000, will retire Dec. 31.