News

Health care is about human connection: people taking care of people. The people of America’s hospitals and health systems do this each and every day, and the COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on the vital role they play in our nation’s health and safety. 

The House of Representatives voted 246-175 to approve H.R. 1868, a bill that, among other health care provisions, would eliminate the 2% across-the-board cut to all Medicare payments, known as sequestration, until the end of 2021.

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday updated the health care provider fact sheets for all three monoclonal antibody therapies authorized for emergency use to include information on whether SARS-CoV-2 variants may show resistance to that therapy.

AHA urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to extend the five-year window for building medical residency programs to account for the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The Department of Health and Human Services postponed for one year, pending judicial review, a final rule that would require the agency to assess periodically each regulation to determine whether it has a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities and, if so, determine whether to retain, modify or eliminate the regulation.

The incredible job that hospitals and caregivers have done over the past year saving lives, treating very sick patients and protecting their communities has been acknowledged and enabled by Congress through relief aid several times since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration authorized marketing a SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic test beyond the public health emergency based on additional data. FDA previously authorized the BioFire Respiratory Panel 2.1 test for emergency use to detect SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens in individuals with suspected COVID-19.

AHA urged the Department of Justice to investigate thoroughly UnitedHealth Group’s proposed acquisition of Change Healthcare because it threatens to reduce competition for the sale of health care information technology services to hospitals and other health care providers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has created a federal classification scheme for SARS-CoV-2 variants and posted information on their prevalence in the United States.

The Senate voted 50-49 to confirm President Biden’s nomination of Xavier Becerra to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Payment and Access Commission released its March report to Congress, which recommends automatically increasing the federal share of Medicaid expenditures during economic downturns to support increased enrollment and decreased state revenue.

On this AHA Advancing Health podcast, Esther Corpuz, CEO of Alivio Medical Center in Chicago, talks about combating the COVID-19 pandemic through testing, vaccinations and education within the community.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response released "The Storm After the Storm: Healthcare in Texas Recovers from Severe Winter Weather.”

The Food and Drug Administration launched a dashboard that will provide weekly updates on adverse events submitted to its adverse event reporting system for COVID-19 drugs and biological products authorized for emergency use.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allocated $10 billion to states and territories from the American Rescue Plan Act to support testing to screen teachers, staff and students for COVID-19 to help reopen schools.

The House voted 415-3 to approve legislation (H.R. 1799) that would extend the Paycheck Protection Program through June 30, with applications accepted through May 31.

In response to feedback from AHA and others, UnitedHealthcare will allow hospitals and other health care providers to continue to access certain claims payment data through its Optum Pay platform at no cost.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a request for applications for practices and payers to participate in the Primary Care First Model beginning in January 2022.

“Though many parts of the US government and society have struggled to respond to COVID, large integrated multi-hospital health systems appear to have made a decisive difference in this pandemic,” consultants Jeff Goldsmith and Ian Morrison write in the Health Affairs Blog.

Moderna announced the administration of first COVID-19 vaccine doses to participants between the ages of 6 months and 12 years old as part of a phase 2/3 clinical trial.