News

Our just-concluded National Hospital Week provided many great opportunities to express our heartfelt thanks to the remarkable caregivers who continue to minister to COVID-19 patients—and all patients who come through our hospital and health system doors—every day in every community across America.

The House yesterday passed the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act — a $3 trillion COVID-19 relief package.

The National Academies of Sciences Engineering, and Medicine released recommendations for improving outcomes and metrics associated with four grant programs funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to help reduce opioid-related harm and promote recovery from substance use disorder.

The Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council, a public-private partnership developed to mitigate threats to the nation’s health care sector, released guidance and recommendations to help health care organizations protect trade secrets, medical research and other innovation capital from theft. 

Health care systems face difficult challenges in their effort to provide safe and effective care not just for COVID-19 patients, but all patients living with serious illness.

The AHA today debuted a new video that spotlights the value of membership in the AHA, including how the association is telling hospital and health systems’ stories, advocating for funding and regulatory relief, getting resources to the front lines and helping to lead the field to recovery.

Shelter-in-place orders and the closure of restaurants, bars and entertainment-related businesses helped to slow the spread of COVID-19 between March 1 and April 27, according to a study published by Health Affairs.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized the emergency use of infusion pumps to counteract insufficient supplies needed for the continuous infusion of medications, total parenteral nutrition and other fluids into COVID-19 patients.

Based on early data, the Abbott ID NOW point-of-care test to diagnose COVID-19 may return false negative results, the Food and Drug Administration announced, adding that it will continue to review data as the company conducts post-market studies to better understand the cause.

The CDC issued a health advisory warning of COVID-19-associated multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.

CMS recently issued new guidance to states to allow temporary COVID-19-related modifications in provider payment methodologies and capitation rates under Medicaid managed care plans.

The AHA urged the nation's primary federal regulators for insured depository institutions to prepare to take prompt action to assist health care providers on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic should the need to do so arise.

The CDC will award $10.25 billion from the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act to states, localities and territories by May 23 to expand COVID-19 testing and surveillance activities, the agency announced.

National Hospital Week 2020 may be coming to a close tomorrow, but our efforts to support America’s health care heroes and their hospitals and health systems are still going strong.

The AHA provided comments on a number of provisions affecting hospitals and health systems that were included in the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act — a $3 trillion COVID-19 relief package that was unveiled Tuesday by House Democratic leaders.

As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, Bruce Bailey, president and CEO of Tidelands Health based in Georgetown, S.C., talks about how hospitals and health systems without inpatient behavioral health services or onsite mental health clinicians can still address the needs of these patients.

Two health systems and a physician received 2019 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards from The Joint Commission and National Quality Forum for “groundbreaking” initiatives at the national, local and individual level.

The Kaiser Family Foundation released a study showing the scope of COVID-19’s effect on health insurance coverage.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid released a new toolkit of best practices to help nursing homes, states and departments of health address the COVID-19 crisis within nursing homes.

More than 150 organizations, including hospitals, received $15 million in grants to increase telehealth training during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.