News

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.

Hospital emergency departments, primary care and behavioral health care organizations, public health agencies and tribal organizations may apply through March 30 for fiscal year 2020 grants to implement the Zero Suicide in Health Systems model.

In an AHA Stat Blog post, AHA General Counsel Melinda Hatton and others point out a number of flaws in a study on hospital consolidation and quality, and the way the news media covered it.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) a public health emergency and ordered all U.S. citizens returning from the Wuhan, China, region to be quarantined for two weeks.

American Hospital Association President and CEO Rick Pollack outlines the steps that leaders of hospitals and health systems should take to prepare for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today released new Medicaid guidance to states that would enable them to apply for 1115 waiver authority to receive a defined amount of federal funding to cover services for certain healthy adults.

Cardinal Health, in coordination with the Food and Drug Administration, today announced actions involving 2.9 million procedure packs manufactured between September 2018 and January 2020 that contain surgical gowns recalled last week.

The AHA urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to withdraw a proposed rule related to Medicaid program financing and supplemental payments because it would “severely curtail the availability of health care services to millions of individuals” and “many of its provisions are not legally permissible.”

The AHA is accepting nominations through March 12 for outstanding clinicians to serve three years on its Committee on Clinical Leadership.

The National Governors Association urged CMS not move forward with its Medicaid fiscal accountability proposed rule as written.

The husband of a Chicago woman infected by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is the first individual in the U.S. to contract the illness via person-to-person contact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has identified the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System billing codes for hospital outpatient services that will require prior authorization starting July 1 under the hospital outpatient prospective payment system final rule for calendar year 2020.

The national maternal mortality rate in 2018 was 17.4 per 100,000 live births, and ranged from 11.8 per 100,000 for Hispanic women to 37.1 per 100,000 for black women, according to data released by the National Center for Health Statistics.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updated the overall hospital quality star ratings at Hospital Compare and data.medicare.gov as part of the quarterly refresh of the website’s data.

The Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that they assisted the Department of State in relocating approximately 195 U.S. citizens out of Wuhan, China.

A federal court voided certain provisions in a 2013 rule modifying the HIPAA privacy, security and enforcement rules under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act and Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.