News

The Food and Drug Administration reminded clinical laboratory staff and health care providers to follow recommended steps to prevent false positive results from antigen tests for the COVID-19 virus, citing reports of false positives in nursing homes and other settings.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would like to partner with one or more organizations to enable centralized reporting from COVID-19 testing entities to public health departments, the agency said this week in a request for information.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updated its Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program scorecard with additional state data on enrollment, per capita spending and administrative accountability.

The AHA’s American Society for Health Care Engineering presented its 2020 Excellence in Health Care Facility Management Award  to Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health for implementing process, software and data changes that allow its maintenance technicians and leadership to view enterprise-wide data on facility performance.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a final rule that, among other updates and changes, allows certain new and innovative equipment and supplies used for home-based dialysis treatment of patients with End-Stage Renal Disease to qualify for an additional Medicare payment.

A federal judge in Illinois ruled the Department of Homeland Security’s public charge rule was invalid because it violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has posted new FAQs on the information blocking provisions in its final rule updating information sharing requirements for health information technology.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched the Nursing Home Resource Center to provide the latest COVID-19 information, guidance and data. CMS said the centralized hub includes resources for clinicians, including facility inspection reports, training and payment policy information.

German biotech firm CureVac N.V. announced interim data from its ongoing Phase 1 dose-escalation study evaluating its CVnCoV SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate for safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity.

Specialty drugs more than doubled as a share of retail fills for the overall U.S. population between 2010 and 2017, according to a study using various sources and published in Health Affairs, growing from 1% to 2.3%.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Oct. 30 announced the participation of 51 Direct Contracting Entities in the implementation period of the Global and Professional Options of the Direct Contracting Model.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Nov. 1 approved Georgia’s waiver allowing the state to forgo a government-run website to help individuals enroll in coverage, instead relying on private brokers and insurers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a new resource highlighting core components of environmental cleaning disinfection in hospitals.

The AHA provided comments on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ proposed revision to the definition of “reasonable and necessary” for purposes of Medicare coverage determinations.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Oct. 30 released Part II of the calendar year 2022 Medicare Advantage and Part D Advance Notice.

AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack recently spoke with Modern Healthcare about a host of issues, including COVID-19, the future of the Affordable Care Act and the importance of preserving coverage, and what issues are at stake for hospitals and health systems during a lame-duck session of Congress.

The departments of Health and Human Services and Defense this weekend announced a pair of contracts to expand domestic COVID-19 testing capacity.

The AHA urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to immediately withdraw the new condition of participation that threatens to expel hospitals from the Medicare program if they fail to comply with “frequently changing and confusing” COVID-19 data collection efforts.

The Food and Drug Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Oct. 30 announced a memorandum of understanding to maximize inspection and detection capabilities in order to prevent harmful products from entering the U.S. through international mail facilities.

Friday, Nov. 6, is the deadline by which providers must apply to receive a portion of $20 billion in funds that will be distributed from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund.