News

AHA Sept. 23 sponsored the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference session, “Advancing Black Maternal Health: Moving the Momnibus and Coverage Expansion Forward.”

The Department of Health and Human Services through Sept. 24 has reduced by 52.8% its backlog of Medicare appeals at the Administrative Law Judge level, according to a status report the agency provided today to a federal court.

Hospitals and health systems nationwide can participate in the non-partisan Spirit of Liberty Foundation’s Operation Thank You relay.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized for emergency use the first serology test to help identify individuals with antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 at the point of care.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance group has reached a tentative settlement in an antitrust lawsuit dating back to 2012 that alleged its member companies illegally conspired to divvy up markets and avoid competing against one another, driving up customers’ prices, the Wall Street Journal reports.

As health care executives and their boards face increasingly complex challenges and opportunities, the best boards are taking a much more proactive approach to their own renewal.

The Department of Health and Human Services in a strongly worded letter to Eli Lilly calls into question recent actions by the drug manufacturer to limit 340B hospital and community clinics’ use of 340B contract pharmacy arrangements.

Two clinical trials launched in April to evaluate convalescent plasma as a treatment for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are expanding, the National Institutes of Health announced.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced $165 million in supplemental funding to help 33 states participating in the Money Follows the Person Medicaid demonstration transition older adults and individuals with disabilities from long-term care facilities to home and community-based settings, including in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The House voted 359-57 to pass a continuing resolution that would generally extend current federal funding levels for health care and other programs through Dec. 11.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded $200 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funds to help states, territories and other jurisdictions prepare to distribute and administer COVID-19 vaccine.

Johnson & Johnson said  that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate is moving to a global phase 3 clinical trial.

The RAND Corporation last week released the third edition of its hospital price transparency study, which once again missed the mark with its flawed methodology, writes Aaron Wesolowski, AHA vice president for policy research, analytics and strategy, in the AHA Stat Blog.

The Health Resources and Services Administration awarded states, territories and nonprofit organizations $341 million in fiscal year 2020 funding for the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, which provides voluntary home visiting services to pregnant women and parents with young children.

AHA General Counsel Melinda Hatton interviews Cate Stetson, acclaimed advocate and leader of the appellate practice at Hogan Lovells, about the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy and what it means for the legal challenges facing the Affordable Care Act and other legal cases that matter to hospitals and health systems.

The House approved by voice vote the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act, AHA-supported legislation that would repeal the antitrust exemption available to commercial health insurers for anticompetitive conduct.

The House of Representatives passed the Maternal Health Quality Improvement Act of 2019 (H.R. 4995), which would create new Public Health Service Act programs to improve maternal health.

Molly Smith, AHA vice president for coverage and state issues forum, participated in a panel discussion on reducing health care costs in the U.S. health care system without sacrificing quality, as part of The Atlantic Festival’s virtual event.

Nearly 30 representatives urged House leaders to modify in the next COVID-19 response package impending thresholds for qualifying participants in Advanced Alternative Payment Models, which they said threaten to “derail” the movement to value-based care under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act.

The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 today surpassed 200,000, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University & Medicine.