News

The Supreme Court of the United States declined to consider AHA’s lawsuit asking the court to reverse federal appeals court decisions that threaten continued access to care for hospital outpatients in need by making significant Medicare cuts to payments for health exams at off-site clinics.

July 6 is the deadline for state and local governments to apply for grants of up to $125,000 each to develop multi-sector plans to address social determinants of health to improve chronic disease outcomes in populations experiencing health disparities and inequities.

The AHA and American Medical Association last week urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to delay until at least Jan. 1, 2023, the deadline for physicians, hospitals and health systems to implement appropriate use criteria for advanced diagnostic imaging services, citing “the unprecedented financial strain placed on providers by the COVID-19 public health emergency, continued technological challenges, and the need for additional programmatic guidance.”

Commenting today on long-term care hospital provisions in the fiscal year 2022 proposed rule for the inpatient and LTCH prospective payment systems, AHA said it supports the proposals to use fiscal year 2019 claims as a basis for calculating the FY 2022 payment update; require state Medicaid programs to enroll all eligible Medicare providers; and the overall objectives of the requests for information on health equity and digital quality reporting. 

AHA today voiced strong support for provisions in the inpatient prospective payment system proposed rule for fiscal year 2022 that would repeal the requirement that hospitals report their median payer-specific charges for Medicare Advantage organizations by Medicare severity diagnosis related group and use them in calculating new market-based relative weights. 

On this episode, you’ll hear from Kenneth Davis, M.D., president and CEO of Mount Sinai Health System in New York, a system that was on the front lines of the first wave of COVID-19. He is a neurobiologist and a pioneering researcher in the field of brain disease, notably Alzheimer’s disease.

Avid Medical has recalled several of its medical convenience kits due to fungal contamination risk from an applicator used to sanitize skin before surgery or catheter procedures, the Food and Drug Administration announced.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized for emergency use a new drug to treat hospitalized patients receiving systemic corticosteroids who require supplemental oxygen, mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

U.S. health care providers may no longer order the monoclonal antibodies bamlanivimab and etesevimab until further notice due to rising prevalence of the SARS-CoV-2 P.1 and B.1.351 variants, which are not susceptible to the combination therapy, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response announced.

Responding to a June 20 op-ed published in the Washington Post, AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said the alarmist headline misrepresented the facts.

A bipartisan group in the Senate reached a deal with President Biden on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure framework that forgoes tax increases as a funding source.

In Bellingham, Wash., the PeaceHealth clinic is using community health workers, or promotoras, to help educate farmworkers in rural communities about the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine. 

EmPATH — Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment and Healing — is a new approach designed to guide patients safely through a current mental health crisis while building coping skills that will guide them through future challenges, writes Lewis Zeidner, system director, clinical triage and transition services, at M Health Fairview.

In a recent Fox Business Network interview, John Riggi, AHA’s senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk offered solutions to help prevent cyberattacks against hospitals and health systems, including investment in new technology and educating the workforce.

The Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium has begun enrolling up to 1,000 pregnant and postpartum individuals who have or will receive COVID-19 vaccine in a study to assess vaccine safety, immune response and transfer of antibodies to their infants, the National Institutes of Health announced.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Health Care Program will carry forward up to $379.97 million in unused funds from prior years to increase available funding for funding year 2021 and beyond if needed, the agency announced.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on several AHA-supported bills to advance public health by focusing on social determinants of health and data collection.

EmPATH — or Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment and Healing — is designed to guide patients safely through a current crisis while building coping skills that will guide them through future challenges. Though it just opened in March, this unit is moving emergency mental health care in a new and exciting direction.

An estimated 16.8 million U.S. adults had undiagnosed COVID-19 by July 2020, representing 4.6% of U.S. adults and 4.8 undiagnosed infections for every diagnosed case, according to a National Institutes of Health study published by the journal Science Translational Medicine. NIH’s SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence Project used an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to identify SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in dried blood samples collected from a representative sample of U.S. adults.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Columbus-based OhioHealth applied its expansive resources to analyze over 500,000 PCR tests, create a dedicated supply chain team for personal protective equipment procurement, and redeploy administrative workers to the front lines, avoiding layoffs and even providing bonuses.