News

More than 100 organizations, including the AHA, urged congressional leaders Nov. 14 to reauthorize for an additional five years the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which expired Sept. 30. The continuing resolution that passed the House yesterday would extend PAHPA until Jan. 19.

The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center Nov. 15 issued a warning about Rhysida, a ransomware-as-a-service group that has predominantly deployed its ransomware variant since May against the health care, education, manufacturing, information technology and government sectors.

During a legislative markup Nov. 15, the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee advanced to the full committee AHA-supported legislation (H.R. 6366) that would extend for one year the Geographic Practice Cost Index floor for physician work under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and delay for one year payment reductions of up to 15% under the Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule.

Almost one in four U.S. adults reported having a mental illness in 2022, while one in five adolescents reported a major depressive episode, according to the latest national survey.

In a letter submitted to the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health for a hearing Nov. 14, the AHA expressed support for the CONNECT Act (S.2016/H.R. 4189) and urged Congress to allow Medicare beneficiaries to access telehealth services wherever they and their providers are and allow rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers and critical access hospitals to serve as distance sites.

The AHA and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Nov. 14 urged House and Senate leaders to oppose any policies that fail to take into account the costs of safely providing drug administration services to the complex patients that hospitals serve.  

The House Nov. 14 voted 336-95 to pass a continuing resolution (H.R.6363) that funds the federal government through early 2024.

While the Medicaid renewal process can be easy and seamless for some individuals, for others the process may be complicated and result in confusion and termination of coverage, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports based on focus groups it conducted with enrollees in three states.

Find out how the Royal ransomware gang is targeting healthcare and other sectors. Learn how to defend your organization's network and prevent data breaches.

This Thursday is National Rural Health Day, a time to celebrate “the power of rural.”

The latest revisions to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement program underscore the integral role of board members in advancing quality improvement initiatives, writes Sue Ellen Wagner, AHA’s vice president of trustee engagement and strategy.

Crysta Meekins, a program manager for AHA’s Institute for Diversity and Health Equity, shares four takeaways on how to provide equitable, culturally competent and interdisciplinary maternal care to women of color from discussions at a recent screening of “Toxic: A Black Woman’s Story,” a short educational film about racism, toxic stress and birth outcomes.

Michael Warren, M.D., associate administrator for the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau, discusses why the agency launched the hotline last Mother’s Day and how it provides confidential support to pregnant and new mothers who call or text 1-833-TLC-MAMA.

The Food and Drug Administration Nov. 9 cleared for marketing the Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Test, the first COVID-19 antigen test and second COVID-19 at-home test to successfully complete traditional premarket review.

For nearly 250 years, our courageous and selfless veterans have stood up for the nation’s defense, protecting their countrymen and America’s founding ideals at great personal cost.

Laurens Sartoris, who served as president of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association for 27 years, died Oct. 31 at age 78.

AHA Nov. 9 released a social media toolkit and graphics to help hospitals and health systems celebrate National Rural Health Day Nov. 16 and highlight through the week the unique challenges facing rural communities.

The AHA, AHIP, Alliance of Community Health Plans, American Medical Association and Kaiser Permanente have formed a coalition that will recommend strategies to strengthen coordination between the health care and public health systems to improve emergency preparedness, address health disparities and detect infectious diseases.

Fewer than one in four health care professionals working in acute care hospitals and nursing homes were up to date with COVID-19 vaccination during the 2022-23 flu season, defined as receiving a bivalent booster dose or completing a primary series in the previous two months, and fewer than half of nursing home workers had received a flu vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Nov. 9. 

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) this week alerted the sector to a new ransomware threat known as BlackSuit, which may be responsible for an October attack against an organization that provides medical scans and radiology services for almost 1,000 U.S. hospitals and health systems and caused the victim to shut down computer systems and turn away patients.