News

The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization allowing qualified public health labs to use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2019-nCoV Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, previously only available at CDC laboratories.

A new AHA resource debunks the top eight myths about hospital and health system mergers, such as misconceptions that they lead to higher costs for patients, large variation between public and private payment rates, and less access to care. 

Homicide was a leading cause of maternal deaths in Louisiana during 2016 and 2017, exceeding any single pregnancy-associated cause, according to a study reported this week in JAMA Pediatrics.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations held a hearing on potential changes to the annual inflation factor that the Census Bureau uses to measure poverty, which would have eligibility implications for a number of federal programs including Medicaid.

Among other highlights, AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack hosted sessions with policy experts on health care implications for the 2020 election, Medicare for All, the future of the Affordable Care Act, and AHA's rural advocacy agenda. 

The AHA will host a March 12 webinar on using Z codes to document social determinants of health, a valuable but underused tool for hospitals to improve the health and well-being of their patients and communities.

The Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing launched an ad campaign calling for Congress to pass bipartisan legislation to “hold Big Pharma accountable.”

Sue Ellen Wagner joined the AHA as vice president of trustee engagement and strategy, where she oversees the development of trustee education, tools and resources as part of AHA’s Field Engagement team.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released updated infection prevention and control guidance for patients under investigation or with confirmed novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in health care settings.

AHA Board Chair Melinda L. Estes, M.D., today kicked off the AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference by welcoming more than 1,000 rural hospital and health system leaders and trustees — the largest number of attendees in the conference's history.

Eleven people in the U.S. have tested positive for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects to see more cases, including cases where the virus is transferred from person to person. 

The AHA is engaging in early primary states, including Iowa, with ads about rural health care and affordability to ensure issues important to hospitals and health systems stay in front of candidates.

Hospital mergers are worth discussing, but "too often the criticism is far from rigorous" and is "more like an echo chamber," write AHA General Counsel Melinda Hatton and others in an AHA Stat Blog post.

U.S. life expectancy rose by 0.1 year in 2018 to 78.7, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Among specific improvements, the drug overdose death rate fell by 4.6% overall, to 20.7 per 100,000; and the infant mortality rate fell by 2.3%, to 566.2 per 100,000 live births.

Cyber criminals are using the 2019 novel coronavirus to launch malicious phishing campaigns, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response reported.

America’s hospitals and health systems “will always remain vigilant to the next threat and will continue to take the lead in safeguarding the public against potential threats,” writes AHA Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Jay Bhatt, D.O., in response to a Wall Street Journal article on hospital readiness for the Wuhan virus.

Rural hospitals are community strongholds, serving as the key point of care for nearly 20% of Americans.

CMS issued a proposed rule that would implement the standards governing health insurance issuers and the Health Insurance Marketplaces for 2021.

President Trump issued an executive order to combat human trafficking and online child exploitation in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will implement a new ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for reporting vaping-related disorders starting April 1.