News

President-elect Joe Biden named former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler, M.D., as Chief Science Officer of COVID Response, a role that will assume the responsibilities of the current head of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration effort focused on the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Modeling data suggest that the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to increase the U.S. pandemic trajectory in the coming months, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced that it is delaying the reporting deadline for the Provider Relief Fund program.

President-elect Biden unveiled plans for a roughly $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, which includes a number of provisions that affect hospitals and health systems. Biden hopes that Congress will consider the legislation soon after he is inaugurated next week.

Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Since it became a federal holiday in 1983, MLK Day has become widely celebrated as a day of public service for individuals, communities and organizations.

Richard Beigi, M.D., president of UPMC Magee Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh and professor of reproductive sciences at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, will serve as 2021 chair of the AHA Maternal and Child Health Council.

President Trump signed into law AHA-supported legislation that repeals the McCarran-Ferguson antitrust exemption available to commercial health insurers for anticompetitive conduct.

Starting by July 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will reprocess calendar year 2019 claims for hospital outpatient clinic visit services provided in off-campus provider-based departments excepted under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 to pay them at 70% of the outpatient prospective payment system rate, the same rate as non-excepted departments, the agency announced.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended that Congress provide a 2% market-basket update for the hospital inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems in fiscal year 2022.

AHA, through the 100 Million Mask Challenge, continues to work with novel manufacturers and suppliers to support hospitals’ and health systems’ PPE needs.

The hospital-at-home model continues to emerge as a promising approach to improve value for some patients, enabling the receipt of acute-level care in their homes.

Even as hospitals and health systems continue to address COVID-19 and its many challenges, they are looking for lessons learned and opportunities for the future.

The AHA urged President-elect Biden to provide strong federal leadership on the COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration process, and it pledged to work with the incoming administration in expediting the administration of vaccines throughout the nation.

Even as we continue to address COVD-19 challenges, let’s consider the experiences of the past year, looking for lessons learned and opportunities for the future. Here are four major areas that changed during the pandemic and are likely to keep transforming health care in the year ahead.

NewYork-Presbyterian routinely screens patients for social needs during outpatient and emergency department visits at six of the system’s New York City locations to identify patients for whom prevention and early intervention might mitigate social needs, resulting in fewer ED visits and avoidable readmissions.

Pennsylvania has dropped its legal challenge to the proposed merger of Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health and Einstein Healthcare Network.

Nearly 8.3 million people selected a 2021 health plan through HealthCare.gov during open enrollment, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in an update.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services may expand the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model nationwide through rulemaking as soon as next year, the agency announced.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology released for comment proposed changes to the United States Core Data for Interoperability, a standard set of data classes and elements for national health information exchange.

AHA is partnering with the Hospital at Home Users Group and American Academy of Home Care Medicine to present a webinar series for hospitals and health systems interested in implementing a hospital care-at-home model.