News

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and leaders from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Food and Drug Administration yesterday held a listening session with certain health system leaders and patient safety advocates they invited to discuss the department’s plan to launch next year a National Healthcare System Action Alliance to Advance Patient Safety.

In recognition of National Rural Health Day Nov. 17, AHA recently released a webinar recording exploring new rural health care partnership models developed by the Build Healthy Places Network to invest in community health.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services yesterday released three voluntary sample formats (wide, tall and plain) that hospitals may use to meet the federal requirement to make certain standard charges publicly available through a machine-readable file. The agency also posted a sample data dictionary for the wide and tall formats.

In recognition of National Rural Health Day Nov. 17, this first in a two-part series on rural behavioral health examines how a health system in rural Colorado collaborated with mental health providers, first responders and others in its community to address a spike in suicides.

The AHA today released a new report showing how the unlawful actions of drug companies to limit 340B pricing with community and specialty pharmacies are having an adverse impact on access to care for patients and communities across the country. The report is based on a survey of more than 300 hospitals and health systems participating in the 340B program conducted earlier this year by the AHA.

The AHA and seven other national hospital organizations today urged congressional leaders to waive the Statutory PAYGO sequester before yearend to prevent nearly $10 billion in estimated cuts next year to hospital providers in fee-for-service Medicare.

Thursday is National Rural Health Day. It’s an opportunity to focus on the vital work that rural hospitals and health systems are doing each and every day to preserve access to high-quality, affordable care.

Former AHA Chair and Distinguished Service Award recipient William Petasnick died Nov. 8.

In an op-ed published in STAT, Mary Beth Kingston, chief nursing officer at Advocate Aurora Health and a member of the AHA board of trustees, and Christopher S. Kang, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, urge Congress to enact the bipartisan Safety From Violence for Healthcare Employees Act (H.R.7961).

The CDC reported continued increases in certain health care-associated infections in 2021 and improvements in others, based on the summary measure used by the National Healthcare Safety Network to track these infections.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration yesterday released National Guidelines for Child and Youth Behavioral Health Crisis Care, which offer guidance and strategies to help communities address gaps in behavioral health crisis services for children and youth.

The news is filled daily with accounts of conflict around the globe … notably Russia’s war against Ukraine, but other potential clashes bubble near the surface, such as military action by China aga

Health care organizations receive free guidance on providing age-friendly care, part of the seven-month Age-Friendly Health Systems Action Community led by the American Hospital Association

Over 100 health care organizations have signed the Administration’s Health Sector Climate Pledge to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2030, among other actions, a Department of Health and Human Services delegation yesterday told the United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) in Egypt.

AHA leaders are participating this week in the International Hospital Federation’s World Hospital Congress in Dubai.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of Minority Health today released a report on progress and future actions to improve data collection across CMS programs to advance health equity.

AHA’s Lisa Kidder Hrobsky, senior vice president of federal relations, advocacy and political affairs, talks with two veteran political consultants about key results from the House and Senate races and what their impact will mean for the next Congress

Infants under 6 months old had the highest COVID-19 hospitalization rates among Americans under age 65 during March 20-Aug. 31, when the omicron BA.2 and BA.5 variants predominated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today.

South Dakotans yesterday voted to amend their state constitution to expand Medicaid eligibility to low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act. The measure requires the state to submit to the federal government by March 1 a Medicaid state plan amendment to expand eligibility by July 1, 2023.

The Food and Drug Administration recently updated its health care provider fact sheet on bebtelovimab to note that the monoclonal antibody is not expected to neutralize omicron subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1.