Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources and Special Communications

For health care workers with children, returning home from a shift means taking extra precautions before sharing hugs and kisses.

We hope you find the strategies and resources on this page useful to manage your own mental wellbeing, and the mental wellbeing of your health care providers during the pandemic or any other crisis.

Dusty Richardson, M.D., a neurosurgeon at Billings (Montana) Clinic found a new way to make reusable plastic face masks to meet demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The AHA today urged leaders from the nation’s five largest private health insurance companies – Aetna, Anthem, Humana, Cigna and UnitedHealthCare – and organizations that represent insurers (America’s Health Insurance Plans and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association) to join hospitals and health systems to “meet the historic challenge” caused by COVID-19 to “ensure that the health care system is there for anyone who needs care.

The AHA urged leaders from the nation’s five largest private health insurance companies – Aetna, Anthem, Humana, Cigna and UnitedHealthCare – and organizations that represent insurers (America’s Health Insurance Plans and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association) to join hospitals and health systems to “meet the historic challenge” caused by COVID-19.

This Center to Advance Palliative Care webinar for AHA members discusses tools, skills, and training that hospitals and health systems should deploy immediately to ensure appropriate symptom management and patient communication in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A letter to the Drug Enforcement Agency from the AHA, American Medical Association, American Society of Anesthesiologists, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and Association for Clinical Oncology asking the agency to allow drug manufacturers and 503B outsourcing facilities to receive increased annual production quota controlled-substance allocations during the COVID-19 crisis.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals and health systems are expanding telehealth services. In part two, Jay Bhatt, D.O., senior vice president and chief medical officer of the AHA, continues the discussion on the value of telehealth to address behavioral health issues with Shantanu Agrawal, M.D., president and CEO of the National Quality Forum, and Arpan Waghray, M.D., executive medical director for behavioral medicine at Swedish Health Services in Seattle and chief medical officer at Well Being Trust.

The spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) across the globe remains a significant concern in the workplace. Health care employers, especially those operating in a hospital setting, are confronting difficult questions regarding how to handle labor/ management relations, leave and accommodation, safety and health, and other employment issues. Littler Mendelson prepared the following Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and accompanying sample forms and policies, designed to help address some of the more common questions that healthcare employers currently face. This information was last updated on March 27, 2020, and is intended to provide a highly summarized, quick-referenced list of considerations for healthcare-sector employers – THIS IS NOT INTENDED AS, AND IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR EXPERIENCED LEGAL ADVICE.

The COVID-19 pandemic is placing unprecedented demands on the entire health care system. As the number of patients needing acute hospital care rapidly increases, hospitals may be challenged with significant shortages of staff and medical supplies such as personal protective equipment (PPE), hospital beds, medicines and medical devices such as ventilators.

April 1, 2020: The agency adopts an inclusive definition of “health care providers” for purposes of possible exemption from the paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave provisions in FFCRA

Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, the American Hospital Association has worked closely with the CDC, and other federal, state and local partners to respond to this challenge and to make sure hospitals and health systems have the most up-to-date information. As the COVID-19 outbreak evolves AHA continues to share tools, resources and information with the field daily.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law on March 27, provides resources and flexibility for rural hospitals.

Emergency declaration waivers related to flexibility on treatment location and telehealth, the physician self-referral law, workforce and administrative activities.

The AHA asked the Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to directly and expediently distribute to rural and urban hospitals and health systems funds from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund that were designated for providers in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The American Hospital Association and our partners continue to work to make sure that every health care provider can have access to much-need personal protective equipment especially during this health care crisis. Information, policies, procedures and best practices around PPEs are evolving quickly as the overall situation evolves. Here is a quick review of what we’re seeing in the field today with links, as available, for more information.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) asks the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to directly and expediently distribute to rural and urban hospitals and health systems funds from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund that were designated for providers in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.   

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) yesterday released a substantial number of new waivers related to COVID-19. The waivers apply nationwide and are retroactive to March 1, 2020.

AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack provides a statement on CMS's announcement of emergency declaration waivers for health providers.