News

AHA Board Chair Melinda L. Estes, M.D., today kicked off the AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference by welcoming more than 1,000 rural hospital and health system leaders and trustees — the largest number of attendees in the conference's history.

Eleven people in the U.S. have tested positive for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects to see more cases, including cases where the virus is transferred from person to person. 

The AHA is engaging in early primary states, including Iowa, with ads about rural health care and affordability to ensure issues important to hospitals and health systems stay in front of candidates.

Hospital mergers are worth discussing, but "too often the criticism is far from rigorous" and is "more like an echo chamber," write AHA General Counsel Melinda Hatton and others in an AHA Stat Blog post.

U.S. life expectancy rose by 0.1 year in 2018 to 78.7, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Among specific improvements, the drug overdose death rate fell by 4.6% overall, to 20.7 per 100,000; and the infant mortality rate fell by 2.3%, to 566.2 per 100,000 live births.

Cyber criminals are using the 2019 novel coronavirus to launch malicious phishing campaigns, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response reported.

America’s hospitals and health systems “will always remain vigilant to the next threat and will continue to take the lead in safeguarding the public against potential threats,” writes AHA Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Jay Bhatt, D.O., in response to a Wall Street Journal article on hospital readiness for the Wuhan virus.

Rural hospitals are community strongholds, serving as the key point of care for nearly 20% of Americans.

CMS issued a proposed rule that would implement the standards governing health insurance issuers and the Health Insurance Marketplaces for 2021.

President Trump issued an executive order to combat human trafficking and online child exploitation in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will implement a new ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for reporting vaping-related disorders starting April 1.

Hospital emergency departments, primary care and behavioral health care organizations, public health agencies and tribal organizations may apply through March 30 for fiscal year 2020 grants to implement the Zero Suicide in Health Systems model.

In an AHA Stat Blog post, AHA General Counsel Melinda Hatton and others point out a number of flaws in a study on hospital consolidation and quality, and the way the news media covered it.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) a public health emergency and ordered all U.S. citizens returning from the Wuhan, China, region to be quarantined for two weeks.

American Hospital Association President and CEO Rick Pollack outlines the steps that leaders of hospitals and health systems should take to prepare for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today released new Medicaid guidance to states that would enable them to apply for 1115 waiver authority to receive a defined amount of federal funding to cover services for certain healthy adults.

Cardinal Health, in coordination with the Food and Drug Administration, today announced actions involving 2.9 million procedure packs manufactured between September 2018 and January 2020 that contain surgical gowns recalled last week.

The AHA urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to withdraw a proposed rule related to Medicaid program financing and supplemental payments because it would “severely curtail the availability of health care services to millions of individuals” and “many of its provisions are not legally permissible.”

The AHA is accepting nominations through March 12 for outstanding clinicians to serve three years on its Committee on Clinical Leadership.

The National Governors Association urged CMS not move forward with its Medicaid fiscal accountability proposed rule as written.