News

Hundreds of hospital and health system leaders urged senators and representatives to support key priorities, including additional COVID-19 relief, during Congress’ lame-duck session.

Last week, we Americans exercised our hallowed right to vote in record numbers. We did so at a time of unusual stress, facing steep challenges and deep divisions within our country. Yet once more, we honored our democratic system and our heritage by using the ballot to speak our minds.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized a 2018 proposed rule implementing policy changes recommended by state Medicaid directors and others to streamline managed care regulations for the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program.

The Medicare Part A deductible for inpatient hospital services will increase by $76 in calendar year 2021, to $1,484, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced.

AHA will provide live coverage and analysis of the Nov. 10 U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments in the latest challenge of the Affordable Care Act.

The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the first serology test to identify individuals with neutralizing antibodies from recent or prior infection with the virus that causes COVID-19.

In a study of 106,543 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 between March and July, 9% were readmitted to the same hospital within two months of discharge, the Centers Disease Control and Prevention reported.

Pfizer Inc. announced that BNT162b2, its mRNA-based vaccine candidate, is more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19, based on early data that has yet to be peer-reviewed.

“America’s hospitals and health systems congratulate President-elect Biden and look forward to working with him and his incoming Administration to make progress on the important issues facing the health care field, and the patients and communities we serve,” AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said after several media outlets called the election for Joe Biden.

The Department of Health and Human Services should fully reinstate its June COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund reporting requirements, AHA said again in a letter to the agency. On Oct. 22, the department partially restored the requirements, but not the ability of hospitals to calculate lost revenue on a monthly basis or use a budgeted-to-actual comparison.

Job growth continued in October, but at a slower pace than this summer, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The health care field added 58,300 jobs, increasing to a seasonally adjusted 15.9 million.

A new AHA issue brief describes how hospitals and health systems can partner with legal organizations or attorneys to meet patients’ social needs and improve community health.

Join AHA and AVIA Nov. 9-13 for a Health Equity and Diversity Week discussion about addressing health care disparities.

The Federal Communications Commission will accept applications to the Connected Care Pilot Program today through Dec. 7.

The AHA continued its ongoing effort to speak out against misinformation about federal relief funding for hospitals, challenging an assertion by an article in the Los Angeles Times that billions in federal funds allocated during the COVID-19 public health emergency is “padding bottom lines at some of the country’s most profitable businesses,” hospitals and health systems included.

More than 700 women die from pregnancy- and delivery-related complications every year, with thousands more suffering from severe health problems related to pregnancy, write AHA’s Robyn Begley, R.N., senior vice president and chief nursing officer and CEO of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership, and Priya Bathija, vice president of strategic initiatives, who note that such deaths are disproportionately affecting communities of color due to implicit biases and disparities.

Eligible family members of front-line health care workers and volunteers who lose their lives to COVID-19 can apply to the Brave of Heart Fund for grants to support common needs such as funeral costs, medical care, counseling, food, education, mortgage payments and living expenses.

We shouldn’t be surprised by now, but 2020 continues to be an extraordinary year … and it’s not over yet.

The National Council for Behavioral Health Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. ET will host a call on improving patient care and addressing persistent health disparities and unconscious bias rooted in systemic racism.

AHA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer Robyn Begley and Microsoft’s Molly McCarthy highlight a free course to help health care leaders prepare to implement artificial intelligence tools to drive innovation, process improvement and better patient outcomes