News

In an op-ed yesterday in The Hill, AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack explains why hospitals and health systems are working with government and other stakeholders this year to enact legislation and policies to ensure access to care and provide financial, regulatory and administrative relief; strengthen the health care workforce; and advance health care quality, equity and transformation.

A Texas judge yesterday held that the federal government’s revised independent dispute resolution process for determining payment for out-of-network services under the No Surprises Act skews the arbitration results in commercial insurers’ favor in violation of the compromise Congress reached in the Act.  

As HHS prepares to end the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11, AHA today recommended the agency take immediate actions to help ensure care remains available to patients when and where they need it; support the health care workforce as they continue to shoulder a disproportionate amount of strain; and remove unnecessary administrative and regulatory burdens that prevent providers from modernizing care delivery while adding cost and friction in the health care system.

 AHA’s recently released 2022 National Health Care Governance Survey Report shows that today’s hospital and health system boards are working hard to keep pace with transformation in health care.

The Committee on Clinical Leadership serves as a clinical resource on policy issues and guides the ongoing work of the AHA Physician Alliance. 

Adults receiving dialysis treatment for end-stage kidney disease were 100 times more likely to have a Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection than adults not on dialysis during 2017-2020, with the risk 40% higher for Hispanic patients than white patients, according to a report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Food and Drug Administration last week removed the requirement for a positive COVID-19 test result to prescribe Paxlovid to certain adult and pediatric patients and Lagevrio to certain adults at risk of progressing to severe COVID-19.

Nearly 1,200 health care leaders from rural hospitals, health systems and health clinics, as well as rural associations and community health organizations, will convene Feb. 19–22 in San Antonio for the AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference.

AHA and its Institute for Diversity and Health Equity are providing social media assets that hospitals and health systems can use throughout February to highlight Black contributions to health care.

Hospitals and health systems added 10,900 jobs in January, while U.S. jobs overall increased by 517,000, according to data released Feb. 3 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Department of Justice withdrew three policy statements on health care antitrust enforcement, saying they are “overly permissive on certain subjects, such as information sharing,” and that “a case-by-case enforcement approach” would allow it to better evaluate health care mergers and competition.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services this week released updated fact sheets for hospitals and other types of Medicare and Medicaid providers on the status of COVID-19 blanket waivers and flexibilities and whether they will end or continue after the COVID-19 public health emergency. 

Cyberattacks are increasing globally and in the U.S., with health care organizations, especially hospitals and health systems, being prime targets.

New on-demand resources from the AHA’s Living Learning Network include a story on the healing power of music from AdventHealth System, and a podcast with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine on improving older adult care in the geriatric emergency department.

The U.S. health care system spent $60 billion conducting nine common administrative transactions in 2022, about $18 billion more than the previous year due to higher staffing costs and health care use.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will accept comments through March 3 on its advance notice of proposed changes to Medicare Advantage plan capitation rates and Part C and Part D payment policies for calendar year 2024.

Health care providers who received Provider Relief Fund and/or American Rescue Plan Rural payments exceeding $10,000 total between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2021, must report to the Health Resources and Services Administration by this March 31 on how they used those funds or face enforcement actions.

On Feb. 16 from noon to 3 p.m. ET, the Federal Trade Commission will host a virtual public forum on its recent proposal to ban as an unfair method of competition contractual terms that prohibit workers from pursuing certain employment after their contract with an employer ends.

AHA today released its advocacy agenda for the coming year, which details the association’s key priorities for Congress, the Administration, regulatory agencies and courts to help hospitals and health systems.

Bolivar (Tenn.) General Hospital and its CEO, Ruby Kirby, will receive the