News

A federal district court judge in Alabama yesterday ruled that the Blue Cross Blue Shield organizations named in multi-district antitrust litigation in that court must defend under a strict per se standard of review the geographic and output restrictions in the “exclusive service area” and “national best efforts” rules.

More than 90 people have presented to emergency departments in Illinois and four other states since March 10 with serious unexplained bleeding, including two patients who died.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has launched an Evidence-Based Practices Resource Center, which offers treatment improvement protocols, clinical practice guidelines and other tools related to opioids and other substance use prevention, treatment and recovery, and serious mental illness and mental health.

Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.19% in March to a seasonally adjusted 5,153,700 people.

Each April, the AHA joins Donate Life America, the Health Resources and Services Administration and others in highlighting the important role of organ, eye and tissue donation in providing hope and health. 

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission today approved a recommendation to reduce emergency department payment rates by 30% for off-campus stand-alone EDs located within six miles of an on-campus hospital ED.

The leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last night released a discussion draft of bipartisan legislation to address the opioid crisis, and announced an April 11 hearing on the bill with the goal of marking up legislation this spring.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, M.D., today issued a public health advisory urging Americans who misuse opioids, have an opioid use disorder or recent overdose, or know someone who does, to carry and know how to use naloxone – a drug that can be delivered via nasal mist or injection to temporarily suspend the effects of an overdose until emergency responders arrive.

The AHA, along with Baxter International Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust, is accepting applications through April 6 for the 2018 Foster G. McGaw Prize.

The AHA today expressed support for the Children’s Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2018 (S. 2597/H.R. 5385), which would reauthorize the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education program for an additional five years and fund the program annually at $330 million.

The National Institutes of Health will spend about $1.1 billion this year on research to prevent and treat opioid addiction.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology today released an online guide to help patients and caregivers access and use their health information electronically.

Nearly 11.8 million people actively or automatically enrolled in a health plan through HealthCare.gov or a state-based exchange during open enrollment for 2018.

The AHA has launched its 2018 National Health Care Governance Survey, which will benchmark board structures, practices and culture and highlight best practices and trends in the evolving environment.

Maine hospitals contributed $10.2 billion and 66,870 direct and indirect jobs to the state’s economy in 2016

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today urged state and local health departments and health care facilities to work with its Antibiotic Resistance Lab Network to implement a coordinated strategy to prevent the spread of unusual germs that are resistant to all or most antibiotics or can spread their resistance to other germs, reporting more than 220 instances of such germs in the United States last year.

The AHA, Association of American Medical Colleges, America’s Essential Hospitals, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, Henry Ford Health System and Adventist Health System's Park Ridge Health yesterday urged a federal appeals court to find that they are entitled to a preliminary injunction in their lawsuit to prevent a nearly 30% Medicare payment reduction for many hospitals in the 340B drug savings program.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is accepting applications through May 29 for grants to establish, expand and maintain Assertive Community Treatment programs.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host an April 5 webinar to update health care providers and others as it rolls out new Medicare cards to beneficiaries that replace the Social Security-based beneficiary number with a new Medicare beneficiary identifier.

April 28 is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, an opportunity for the public to safely dispose of unwanted or expired prescription pills at sites throughout the country.