News

In recognition of National Rural Health Day Nov. 17, this last in a two-part series on rural behavioral health shares how a critical access hospital in Newland, N.C., obtained an unprecedented Medicare waiver to become a regional behavioral health hospital to expand inpatient capacity for psychiatric services in the community.

The Health Resources and Services Administration this week opened the Provider Relief Fund reporting portal through Dec. 2 for health care providers authorized to report late on how they used PRF payments received between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2021 that totaled over $10,000.

The FBI, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, and Department of Health and Human Services yesterday recommended actions to reduce the risk of compromise from Hive ransomware, which has victimized over 1,300 health care and other organizations since last June.

For more than 400 years, we have paused each fall to give thanks. We do so during good times and bad because most years bring a mixture of both.

AHA is adding to its United Against the Flu campaign with new assets that hospitals and health systems can use to encourage the communities they serve to get vaccinated against influenza and COVID-19.

The AHA’s The Value Initiative today released a dashboard to help health care leaders measure and articulate the value of team-based care.

To honor today’s annual celebration of rural hospitals and health systems, AHA’s John Supplitt, senior director of rural health services, talks with Roxie Wells, M.D., president of Cape Fear Valley Hoke Hospital and a member of the AHA Board of Trustees, about rural hospitals’ resilience in the face of change.

Five medical organizations this week released a toolkit for clinicians in post-acute and long-term care settings about the benefits of the COVID-19 bivalent booster and oral antiviral therapeutics. 

Children under age 5 are more likely to receive a COVID-19 vaccine if their parents perceive it as safe and their health care provider recommends it, according to a study released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In recognition of National Rural Health Day on Nov. 17, 2022, AHA today joined a Twitter chat on rural health literacy hosted by the Rural Health Information Hub and National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health.

In partnership with AHA and others, Amazon Web Services announced the AWS Healthcare Accelerator, a virtual four-week mentorship program beginning in April for startups focused on digital solutions to help train, retain and deploy the health care workforce.

AHA released its annual snapshot of employment at America’s hospitals and health systems, which offers innovative strategies to help organizations build a robust workforce in the face of ongoing shortages and reconnect their clinicians to purpose and help them thrive.

The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency and FBI advised organizations to protect VMware Horizon servers from a Log4Shell vulnerability recently exploited by Iranian-sponsored actors. 

AHA this week released a new Thanksgiving-focused toolkit to help promote pediatric COVID-19 vaccination on social media, including sample content and graphics.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and leaders from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Food and Drug Administration yesterday held a listening session with certain health system leaders and patient safety advocates they invited to discuss the department’s plan to launch next year a National Healthcare System Action Alliance to Advance Patient Safety.

In recognition of National Rural Health Day Nov. 17, AHA recently released a webinar recording exploring new rural health care partnership models developed by the Build Healthy Places Network to invest in community health.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services yesterday released three voluntary sample formats (wide, tall and plain) that hospitals may use to meet the federal requirement to make certain standard charges publicly available through a machine-readable file. The agency also posted a sample data dictionary for the wide and tall formats.

In recognition of National Rural Health Day Nov. 17, this first in a two-part series on rural behavioral health examines how a health system in rural Colorado collaborated with mental health providers, first responders and others in its community to address a spike in suicides.

The AHA today released a new report showing how the unlawful actions of drug companies to limit 340B pricing with community and specialty pharmacies are having an adverse impact on access to care for patients and communities across the country. The report is based on a survey of more than 300 hospitals and health systems participating in the 340B program conducted earlier this year by the AHA.

The AHA and seven other national hospital organizations today urged congressional leaders to waive the Statutory PAYGO sequester before yearend to prevent nearly $10 billion in estimated cuts next year to hospital providers in fee-for-service Medicare.