News

AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack kicked off the AHA Virtual Executive Forum: Advancing Health Equity and Eliminating Care Disparities by welcoming hospital and health system leaders to the first virtual executive forum.

Patients should not wear face masks, such as surgical or non-surgical masks and respirators, with metal parts and coatings during a Magnetic Resonance Imaging exam, because they may become hot and burn the patient, the Food and Drug Administration reminded patients and health care providers.

This podcast, in support of AHA’s national strategic alliance with the National Urban League, is bringing attention to health inequities in Black and underserved communities through the lens of the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency and this year’s flu season.

The AHA urged Congressional leaders to support the bipartisan Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (H.R. 6788/S.3599), and include it in forthcoming COVID-19 relief legislation.

A bipartisan group of representatives and senators released details on a $908 billion COVID-19 relief bill that they are pushing.  

The National Institutes of Health announced two new funding opportunities as part of its program to enhance inclusive excellence and increase participation from historically underrepresented groups at NIH-funded institutions.

Sejal B. Shah, M.D., and Carla B. Monteiro, a licensed clinical social worker, at Boston-based Brigham and Women’s Hospital write that stigma and disparities around the opioid epidemic can disproportionately affect the Black and African American communities.

“Achieving health equity is a journey,” write Priya Bathija, AHA vice president of strategic initiatives, and Julia Resnick, senior program manager. To bridge the gap between commitment and action, they discuss AHA’s new resource, Societal Factors that Influence Health: A Framework for Hospitals.

A federal district court in Pennsylvania rejected a legal challenge by the Federal Trade Commission to prevent the proposed merger of Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health and Einstein Healthcare Network.

Over 9,000 eligible nursing homes, or 69%, will receive a portion of $523 million in COVID-19 Provider Relief Funds for meeting infection control and mortality criteria in effect from September through October, the Health Resources and Services Administration announced.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updated its guidance on enforcement discretion during the COVID-19 public health emergency for laboratories performing molecular and antigen tests for the virus on asymptomatic individuals at the point of care or in patient care settings operating under a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments certificate.

The Department of Health and Human Services has released hospital-level data on COVID-19 capacity, aggregated by week going back to Aug. 1.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dec. 9 at 4 p.m. ET will host a call to discuss recent flexibilities the agency announced to allow acute health care services to be provided outside of a hospital setting in response to the surging COVID-19 pandemic.

The AHA released a new edition of the COVID-19 Snapshot to impart upon Congress the critical needs of hospitals and health systems during the deepening public health emergency.

The Food and Drug Administration released a briefing document on Pfizer’s BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine candidate that confirms the drug maker’s claims of the vaccine’s efficacy and safety.

The Department of Health and Human Services should withdraw a proposed rule that would require it to assess a regulation periodically to determine whether it has a significant economic impact on small entities and, if so, review the regulation to determine whether to retain, modify or eliminate it, AHA said in comments submitted.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments in cases challenging the Department of Health and Human Services for authorizing Arkansas and New Hampshire to condition Medicaid coverage on work requirements and other restrictions.

President-elect Joe Biden nominated California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as the next Health and Human Services Secretary.

Acute-care hospitals reduced Clostridium difficile infections by 18%, catheter-associated urinary tract infections by 8% and central line-associated bloodstream infections by 7% in 2019, according to the latest progress report on reducing healthcare-associated infections from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published an addenda with instructions for implementing six new ICD-10 diagnosis codes for reporting COVID-19-related conditions on health care claims effective Jan. 1.