News

The AHA July 18 issued a statement on the passing of Rep. John Lewis, a long-standing former member of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee and Chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight. Congressman Lewis was a close ally of America’s hospitals and a powerful advocate for the Medicare program, the Affordable Care Act and health equity.

The AHA July 20 submitted comments on proposed Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regulations that would support state flexibility in Medicaid drug value-based purchasing arrangements and other changes to the Medicaid drug rebate program for fiscal year 2021.

The AHA Board of Trustees July 20 announced the selection of Wright Lassiter III, president and CEO of Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, as its chair-elect designate. He will become AHA chair in 2022.

The Food and Drug Administration last week reissued its emergency use authorization of Quest Diagnostics’ SARS-CoV-2 rRT-PCR test for use with pooled samples containing up to four individual swab specimens collected under observation.

A COVID-19 trial vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca produced neutralizing antibody responses in patients with SARS-CoV-2, according to a study published July 20 in The Lancet.

The New England Journal of Medicine last week released a study showing that the use of dexamethasone resulted in a lower, 28-day mortality rate among patients receiving invasive ventilation or oxygen.

More than 350 hospital and health system leaders from across the country participated in an AHA Virtual Advocacy Day to urge senators to include priorities that support hospitals and health systems in the next COVID-19 legislative package.

In 2016, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu spent one week together in deep discussion about joy. How to obtain it and hold on to it in a changing and often chaotic world.

AHA today urged a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., to overturn a Department of Health and Human Services rule requiring hospitals to disclose their confidential privately negotiated charg

Raymond Waller, hospital administrator at Ascension Brighton Center for Recovery in Brighton, Mich., and 2020 chair of AHA's Behavioral Health Council, looks at substance use rates, stigma and the lack of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) behavioral health care providers.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed a district court decision that found the Department of Health and Human Services exceeded its statutory authority when it reduced payments for hospital outpatient services furnished in off-campus provider-based departments grandfathered under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015.

The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response July 21 at 12 p.m. ET will host a COVID-19 webinar on “Critical Care: Lifesaving Treatment and Clinical Operations.”

The Food and Drug Administration at 8 p.m. will close its COVID-19 hotline for questions related to COVID-19 diagnostic tests and device shortages, including personal protective equipment and respirators.

The Department of Health and Human Services is accepting registrations for its Telemedicine Hack, a free 10-week learning community to accelerate telemedicine implementation for ambulatory providers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is developing guidance that will no longer recommend a second negative test within 24 hours before COVID-19 patients emerge from isolation, according to news reports from a press call with Brett Giroir, M.D., assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services.

If you missed the live event, you can listen to a podcast of Leadership Rounds – the first in a series of short conversations on a range of key issues AHA Board Chair Melinda Estes, M.D., will have with hospital and health system leaders from across the country.

The Federal Reserve Board modified the Main Street Lending Program to provide a new borrowing option for nonprofit organizations including hospitals, a move advocated for by the AHA.

The AHA, American Medical Association, and American Nurses Association urged Senate leaders to include in the next COVID-19 relief bill provisions to strengthen the federal response for racial and ethnic minority and marginalized communities, which are disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

In situations where supplies are limited, the National Institutes of Health’s COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel recommended prioritizing remdesivir for use in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 who require supplemental oxygen but are not mechanically ventilated or on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced that it will distribute a second round of funding from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund to hospitals that have been highly impacted by COVID-19. Payments totaling $10 billion will go out to over 1,000 hospitals as early as July 20.