News

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission Jan. 15 voted to recommend that Congress update Medicare payment rates for hospital inpatient and outpatient services by the current law amount for 2027 and reiterated its recommendation to distribute an additional $1 billion to safety-net hospitals by transitioning to a Medicare safety-net index policy.

Every year tens of millions of Americans dig deep into their pocketbooks to pay for health insurance plans that will cover both preventive and necessary care for individuals and families.

The White House released a health care plan Jan. 15 addressing drug prices, health insurance premiums and price transparency efforts.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health Jan.

The latest estimates on overdose deaths released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that as of August 2025, deaths fell approximately 21% from the same period in 2024. Overdose deaths were reported to have fallen in 45 states. 

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found a drastic increase in alcohol-related emergency department visits from 2003-2004 to 2021-2022.

The AHA, in partnership with Press Ganey, Jan. 15 released the fourth in a series of workbooks leaders can use to understand and overcome challenges in engaging their workforce. This workbook guides users through the fundamentals of leadership visibility, common obstacles and the tools needed to enhance leader visibility within your organization.

UnitedHealth Group announced Jan. 14 that it launched a six-month pilot program to reduce Medicare Advantage payment processing times by half for rural hospitals in four states.

U.S. health care spending reached $5.3 trillion in 2024 — growing 7.2% from 2023 — the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported Jan. 14 in Health Affairs.

The AHA Jan. 14 expressed support for the Rural Hospital Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (S. 2169), legislation that would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to create a comprehensive workforce strategy to train cybersecurity professionals and develop partnerships to expand the cybersecurity workforce in rural hospitals.

Jesse Tamplen, vice president of care coordination at John Muir Health in San Francisco, and Jamie Elmasu, director of community health improvement at John Muir Health, explain how community health assessments, data-driven planning and nonprofit partnerships are expanding access to patients who need it most.

The AHA, in partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina’s National Mass Violence Center, Jan. 13 released a new guide for hospital and health care leaders on how to prepare for, respond, mitigate and recover from mass violence incidents.

The five-year survival rate for all cancers in the U.S. has reached 70% for the first time, according to a report published Jan. 13 by the American Cancer Society.

A study released Jan. 12 by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology analyzed the current state of heart health in the U.S., highlighting the burden of disease, quality of care and mortality trends of risk factors and conditions that can lead to heart disease.

As AHA chair, Dr. Boom acknowledges the challenges and opportunities ahead. He is optimistic about working with members to continue finding solutions and transforming the practice and delivery of medicine, providing “better care for humankind and for people in the United States.”

A Senate Judiciary Committee report released Jan. 12 found that UnitedHealth Group used “aggressive strategies” to maximize its Medicare Advantage risk-adjustment scores and collect higher payments from diagnoses of MA enrollees.

Tina Eden, R.N., CEO of Virginia Gay Hospital, and Jacinda Bunch, Ph.D., R.N., assistant professor at the Iowa College of Nursing and senior advisor to Simulation in Motion-Iowa, or SIM-IA, dive into how this mobile clinical education program is delivering high-impact simulation training directly to rural hospitals and EMS teams.

Several health care groups, including the AHA, Jan.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a request for information seeking input on replacing its Medicare claims processing system with a real-time, cloud-based platform.

The FBI Jan.