News

Inpatient rehabilitation facilities and long-term care hospitals have until Jan. 2 to review confidential provider reports based on quality data from second-quarter 2017 to first-quarter 2018 before updated performance is publicly reported on the IRF Compare and LTCH Compare websites in March 2019.

Nine health insurance, employer and consumer organizations today proposed guiding principles for federal legislative action to protect patients from surprise medical bills.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement today released a white paper intended to help health system boards assess and improve their quality oversight processes.

Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.24 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted 5,228,200 people.

“No one should expect that the benefits hospitals provide will be the same for every community,” AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack says in a letter to the editor of Modern Helathcare.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission this week discussed several draft recommendations for Congress, which the panel could vote on in January.

AHA today urged the Department of Homeland Security to withdraw a proposed rule that could limit legal immigrants’ future immigration status if they receive benefits from Medicaid, the Medicare Part D low-income subsidy, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or select housing programs.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today issued a final rule maintaining the current methodology for calculating risk-adjustment transfers in the individual and small group health insurance markets for benefit year 2018.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services yesterday released answers to additional frequently asked questions on a fiscal year 2019 inpatient prospective payment system final rule provision requiring hospitals to publicly post their charges in a machine-readable format at least annually.

AHA today commented on the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics’ draft predictability roadmap, which proposes how the Department of Health and Human Services could improve the development, adoption and implementation of administrative standards and operating rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will use frequently-updated payroll-based data to identify nursing homes that have a significant drop in staffing levels on weekends, or several days in a quarter without a registered nurse on site.

Total enrollment growth in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program decreased 2.2 percent nationally between July 2017 and July 2018, including declines in 37 states and the District of Columbia.

This week, as our nation marked the passing of President George H.W. Bush, I thought about what he meant for the country and its health.

U.S. spending on health care grew 3.9 percent in 2017, down from 4.8 percent in 2016 and less than the growth in the overall economy, primarily due to slower growth in spending for hospital care, physician and clinical services, and retail prescription drugs.

Congress today passed a continuing resolution funding certain federal programs through Dec. 21, preventing a shutdown of those programs tomorrow when their current funding expires.

Reusable elastomeric respirators, rarely used in health care, are an effective and viable option for protecting health care workers from airborne contaminants or infectious agents.

Almost 3.2 million people selected a 2019 health plan through HealthCare.gov between Nov. 1 and Dec. 1, including more than 773,000 last week.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar today named as his senior advisor for drug pricing reform John O’Brien, a pharmacist who previously served as deputy assistant secretary for health policy and an advisor on health reform and drug pricing.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today announced blanket waivers from certain Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program requirements to help health care providers meet patients’ needs in areas of Alaska affected by Friday’s earthquake.

In an AHA video released today for National Influenza Vaccination Week, AHA Chair Nancy Howell Agee, president and CEO of Carilion Clinic, debunks some common flu shot misconceptions.