News

The AHA Aug. 26 commented on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' home health prospective payment system proposed rule for calendar year 2025, expressing concerns about ongoing access challenges for beneficiaries needing home health care and the potential for the proposed rule to cause additional disruption.

Congress returns to Washington, D.C., next week following the summer recess, and lawmakers can expect a busy fall as they face a full plate of issues that need action.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Sept. 5 published a list of participants for the Transforming Episode Accountability Model. TEAM is a mandatory payment model that will bundle payment to acute care hospitals for five types of surgical episodes.

The governing board is instrumental in providing leadership and support for the culture of safety in hospitals and health systems. In this conversation, Jamie Orlikoff, the AHA’s national adviser on governance and leadership, discusses how trustees can affect a culture of safety.

The American Society for Health Care Risk Management Sept. 5 announced two AdventHealth hospitals in Florida will receive its 2024 Innovation Award. AdventHealth Dade City and AdventHealth Zephyrhills are being recognized for the success of their falls prevention program.

The American Society for Health Care Risk Management Sept. 5 announced Joann Wortham as its 2024 Risk Management Professional of the Year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Sept. 4 published a study in JAMA which found older adults who receive a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine are 75% less likely to be hospitalized from RSV compared to those who don’t.

Children's Mercy Kansas City's John Cowden, M.D., director of the Culture and Language Coaching Program, and Jessi Johnson, health equity specialist, discuss what makes equity integration at the health system so unique, and how initial discussions with employees helped guide its equity principles.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture Aug. 30 reported cows in three dairy herds tested positive for bird flu.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects this fall and winter to have a similar or lower number of combined peak hospitalizations due to COVID-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus, according to its respiratory disease season outlook released Aug. 29.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, M.D., Aug. 28 released an advisory on the mental health and well-being of parents.

Advancing health equity is a key priority for the AHA and the American Medical Association, with both developing key initiatives and programs dedicated to these efforts.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Aug. 26 awarded $100 million in navigator grants to 44 organizations to help consumers enroll in health coverage in states participating in the federal health insurance marketplace.

The Department of Health and Human Services Aug. 27 announced it will award more than $558 million to support maternal health initiatives.

The AHA, 340B Health and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists last week filed an amicus

If Johnson & Johnson moves forward with its plan to undermine the 340B Drug Pricing Program by unilaterally imposing a rebate model rather than the longstanding upfront discount model, the Health Resources and Services Administration should take “immediate enforcement action,” including assessing civil monetary penalties on J&J for intentionally overcharging 340B hospitals, the AHA said Aug. 28 in a letter to HRSA.

The Health Resources and Services Administration Aug. 29 announced that it awarded a contract to the American Institutes for Research to support the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Board of Directors.

The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency and the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center Aug. 29 issued a joint advisory to warn of Iranian-based cyber actors leveraging unauthorized network access to U.S. organizations, including health care organizations, to facilitate, execute and profit from future ransomware attacks by apparently Russian-affiliated ransomware gangs.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will not appeal its loss in American Hospital Association v. Becerra. The AHA, joined by the Texas Hospital Association, Texas Health Resources, and United Regional Health Care System, last November sued HHS to bar enforcement of a new rule adopted in guidance by the Office for Civil Rights titled “Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates,” which prevented hospitals and health systems from using standard third-party web technologies that capture IP addresses on key portions of their public-facing webpages.

If Johnson & Johnson moves forward with its plan to undermine the 340B Drug Pricing Program by unilaterally imposing a rebate model rather than the longstanding upfront discount model, the Health Resources and Services Administration should take “immediate enforcement action,” including assessing civil monetary penalties on Johnson & Johnson for intentionally overcharging 340B hospitals, the AHA said Aug. 28 in a letter to HRSA.