News

The House Ways and Means Committee March 6 voted 26-17 to advance as amended to the full House the Protecting America’s Seniors’ Access to Care (H.R. 7513), AHA-supported legislation that would prohibit the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from finalizing a proposed rule on minimum staffing for long-term care facilities.

The House March 6 voted 339-85 to pass a package of six appropriations bills that would fund certain federal agencies through fiscal year 2024 and contains certain health care provisions of interest to hospitals. The Senate is expected to consider the legislation later this week.

We continue to press Congress, the Administration and UnitedHealth Group to step up their efforts to respond to this unprecedented incident.

The Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services March 5 announced flexibilities intended to help providers continue to serve patients in the wake of the cyberattack on Change Healthcare.

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, Federal Trade Commission and Department of Health and Human Services seek public input through May 6 on increasing private-equity and other corporate ownership in health care, which will inform their future enforcement priorities and efforts to promote competition in health care markets.

The Food and Drug Administration recently granted emergency use authorization for the first over-the-counter home antigen test to detect both flu and COVID-19.

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees March 3 released a package of six appropriations bills that would fund certain federal agencies through fiscal year 2024 and contains certain health care provisions of interest to hospitals.

UnitedHealth Group’s Temporary Funding Assistance Program “is not even a band-aid on the payment problems you identify,” AHA wrote March 4 in a message to UHG in response to a program the company unveiled March 1 following a cyberattack on UHG’s subsidiary Change Healthcare.

The AHA March 4 urged Congress to consider a number of actions to support hospitals’ efforts to care for patients as the entire health care system continues to navigate the effects of the ongoing cyberattack against Change Healthcare.

Communication. Teamwork. Unity. That’s what helps drive health care innovation, accelerates health equity, improves health outcomes and advances health in our communities.

Ron Werft, president and CEO of Cottage Health, and Felicia Sadler, vice president of Quality at Relias, discuss insights and real-world approaches outlined in the 2024 AHA Health Care Workforce Scan, designed to help organizations reimagine, redesign and transform their workforce strategies.

The Coalition to Protect America’s Health Care, of which the AHA is a founding member, is continuing to run TV and digital ads urging Congress not to cut hospital care for patients.

U.S. and international agencies Feb. 29 urged health care and other critical infrastructure organizations using Ivanti Connect Secure VPN and Ivanti Policy Secure to take certain steps to defend against known cyber threats that Ivanti’s Integrity Checker Tool may fail to detect.

The cyberattack against Change Healthcare that began on Feb. 21 is the most serious incident of its kind leveled against a U.S. health care organization.

AHA is looking forward to spring and March Madness in its latest social media toolkit for hospitals’ and health systems’ use to promote vaccination against the flu and COVID-19.

A new toolkit from AHA and its American Society for Health Care Engineering is helping prepare hospital and health system leaders to navigate the complex landscape of sustainability and decarbonization within the health care field.

Organizations using the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework as their primary cybersecurity framework report one-third lower cyber insurance premium cost growth, according to the 2024 Healthcare Cybersecurity Benchmarking Study, produced by Censinet and KLAS Research in collaboration with the AHA, Health Information and Analysis Center (Health-ISAC), and Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council. 

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health Feb. 29 held a hearing on legislative proposals to expand access to treatment for patients with rare diseases, which included two hospital witnesses.

AHA Feb. 29 filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of a Louisiana law that prohibits drug companies from denying Louisiana hospitals the same 340B discounts for drugs dispensed at community pharmacies that would be provided via in-house pharmacies, its latest in a string of lawsuits claiming the federal law that created the 340B program preempts the state law. 

The House Feb. 29 voted 320-99 to pass a continuing resolution that would extend funding through March 8 for four appropriations bills set to expire March 1 and through March 22 for eight appropriations bills set to expire March 8.