News

A dual-rate payment system and other factors have sharply increased losses for long-term care hospitals caring for the most severely ill patients under Medicare’s LTCH Prospective Payment System, according to a new AHA white paper, which recommends changes to the payment system’s high-cost outlier policy to help stabilize payment for these hospitals and ensure continued access to care for these beneficiaries.

The Senate Jan. 18 passed a continuing resolution (H.R. 2872) funding four appropriations bills through March 1 and the remaining eight appropriations bills through March 8.

Suzanne Bentley, M.D., chief wellness officer at New York City Health and Hospitals Elmhurst, discusses the critical role of peer support in employee mental health and the impact of building infrastructure focused on the well-being of staff.

In an interview Jan. 17 in the Washington Post’s Health 202 newsletter, AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack explains why ‘site-neutral’ Medicare proposals jeopardize access to hospital care for vulnerable populations, the need to delay impending cuts to Medicaid disproportionate share hospitals and other congressional priorities for the field.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Jan. 17 released a final rule requiring Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and federally facilitated Marketplace plans to streamline their prior authorization processes. AHA has urged the agency to finalize the rule to alleviate provider burden and ensure timely access to care for patients. 

The top three challenges facing nurse leaders are staff recruitment and retention, financial resource availability and workplace violence, according to AONL Foundation’s 2024 Longitudinal Nurse Leadership Insight Study.

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center Jan. 12 reported ongoing bomb threats by malicious actors targeting synagogues, Jewish community centers, schools, hospitals, airports, government buildings and other public institutions in the United States.

Seventeen state hospital associations and 30 hospitals and health systems Jan. 12 filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the AHA in its lawsuit challenging a Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights rule that restricts the use of standard third-party web technologies that capture IP addresses on portions of hospitals’ public-facing webpages.

Reps. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Larry Bucshon, R-Ind., Jan. 12 introduced a House version of the Mapping America’s Pharmaceutical Supply Act, legislation that would require the Department of Health and Human Services to update its essential medicines list and create a database to help predict vulnerabilities in the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain.

An overarching approach to the coming year can be summed up as “letting the data speak and guide us,” writes Joy Lewis, AHA’s senior vice president for health equity strategies and executive director of the organization’s Institute for Diversity and Health Equity.

The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics should consider taking certain actions before finalizing its recommendations on the potential use of ICD-11 for morbidity coding, including working with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to determine if the potential benefits outweigh the health care operational issues, AHA told the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics Jan. 12.

The AHA has been made aware of a validated IT help desk social engineering scheme that uses the stolen identity of revenue cycle employees or employees in other sensitive financial roles.

As congressional leaders continue to hammer out annual spending bills ahead of the Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 deadlines to fund various agencies, a number of important issues affecting hospitals and health systems are being considered.

The Health Resources and Services Administration should classify as essential 15 health care services related to intimate partner violence, according to a report released Jan. 11 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The Department of Health and Human Service today launched a new online hub for federal resources to help people renew Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage, or transition to other coverage if they no longer qualify.

As hospitals and health systems continue to grapple with financial constraints, members of the Leadership Council from AHA’s Institute for Diversity and Health Equity share their expertise about how organizations can continue to advance diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission Jan. 11 voted to recommend that Congress update Medicare payment rates for hospital inpatient and outpatient services by the current law amount plus 1.5% for 2025, and reiterated its recommendation to distribute an additional $4 billion to safety-net hospitals by transitioning to a Medicare safety-net index policy.

Medicare paid hospitals a record low 82 cents for every dollar they spent caring for Medicare patients in 2022, according to a new AHA infographic.

The AHA Jan. 10 urged House and Senate leaders to eliminate Medicaid disproportionate share hospital reductions for two years and reject policies to expand site-neutral payment cuts or add regulatory burdens on hospitals and health systems as part of any government funding package.

Chris DeRienzo, M.D., AHA’s senior vice president and chief physician executive, explores how today’s physician leaders reconcile the demands of two different jobs to support both the patient and their organization's long-term goals.