News

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will create an independent company “free from profit-making incentives and constraints” to address health care for their U.S. employees, the organizations announced today.

Baxter Healthcare Corp. Friday updated U.S. hospital customers on its efforts to address a critical shortage of intravenous solutions since Hurricane Maria impacted its manufacturing facilities in Puerto Rico.

The agency today extended for another six months its moratoria on enrollment of new Medicare home health agencies and and on new Part B non-emergency ground ambulance suppliers in certain states.

Critical access hospitals that did not achieve meaningful use in the Medicare Electronic Health Record Incentive Program for the 2016 reporting period or receive a hardship exception will see their Medicare payments reduced to 100% of their reasonable costs in fiscal year 2018.

The American Board of Medical Specialties is accepting applications until May 1 for its Visiting Scholars Program.

The flu hospitalization rate rose last week to 41.9 per 100,000 people, similar to the rate during the 2014-2015 season, when the same flu strain predominated.

Cheryl Hoying, senior vice president of patient services at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, will chair the AHA’s Committee for Clinical Leadership for 2018.

Named after AHA President Emeritus Dick Davidson, the annual award honors a state, regional or metropolitan hospital association that demonstrates exceptional organizational leadership and innovation in quality improvement.

The AHA yesterday shared with the Department of Health and Human Services its recommendations for promoting competition and choice in the health care system.

Birth defects associated with Zika virus infection during pregnancy increased 21% in the last half of 2016 in Puerto Rico and portions of Florida and Texas where local Zika virus transmission have been reported.

The Federal Trade Commission today released a factsheet to help consumers find safe treatment for opioid dependence or withdrawal.

The AHA’s Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development today released its latest annual guide to health care trends for leaders and strategists.

The service on the AHA's boards would begin in 2019.

Hospitals may use certain intravenous solutions made by Baxter Healthcare Corp. beyond the labeled expiration date due to the ongoing shortage of IV solutions used in critical care.

The Drug Enforcement Administration yesterday published a final rule implementing a 2016 law allowing nurse practitioners and physician assistants who meet certain requirements to prescribe and dispense drugs for the treatment of opioid use disorder.

The Senate voted 55-43 this afternoon to approve the president’s nomination of Alex Azar to serve as Health and Human Services secretary.

The average cost of administering or adjudicating a medical liability claim was $54,165 in 2015, 65% more than in 2006, according to a series of trend reports released today by the American Medical Association.

Oregon voters last night approved a referendum backing the state legislature’s decision to increase the provider tax on certain larger and urban hospitals by 0.7% and institute a 1.5% tax on certain health plans to help preserve the state’s expansion of Medicaid to some 350,000 low-income residents under the Affordable Care Act.

The AHA's Hospitals Against Violence initiative tomorrow will host the second in a series of webinars on human trafficking led by Holly Austin Gibbs from Dignity Health.

The president last night signed a continuing resolution funding the federal government through Feb. 8 and the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years after the House and Senate approved the measure.