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More than 350 hospital and health system leaders from across the country this afternoon participated in an AHA Virtual Advocacy Day to urge senators to include priorities that support hospitals and health systems in the next COVID-19 legislative package.

An AHA report released finds that the financial strain facing hospitals and health systems due to COVID-19 will continue through at least 2020, with total losses expected to be at least $323 billion in 2020.

The Administration for Community Living July 1 at 2 p.m. ET will host a webinar featuring leaders sharing COVID19-related and other resources and research to help support older adults and persons with disabilities residing in rural communities.

The University of New Mexico School of Medicine’s Project ECHO July 2 will host at 12 p.m. ET a collaborative webinar on COVID-19’s treatment using dexamethasone and other steroids. Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is the university’s effort to demonopolize knowledge and amplify the capacity to provide best practice care for underserved people all over the world.

SARS-CoV-2 infections may be 10 times higher than reported cases, according to new data from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention partnership with commercial laboratories to test de-identified clinical blood specimens for antibodies in Connecticut, South Florida, the New York City area, Missouri, Utah and western Washington state.

The AHA outlined a number of actions Congress could take to help the nation prepare for the next pandemic, noting that the current pandemic also remains a challenge.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced an agreement with drug maker Gilead Sciences to allow U.S. hospitals to purchase up to 500,000 treatment courses of remdesivir through September, which HHS and state health departments will allocate as they did the previous 120,000 treatment courses donated by the drug maker.

“I just can’t imagine going back because people recognize the value of this.” That’s what Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said recently about the increased use of telehealth, signaling that doctoring from a distance — which has shown itself to be a lifesaving tool during the COVID-19 pandemic — could be here to stay. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it will extend the Medicare Care Choices Model by one year, through Dec. 31, 2021; already participating hospices can enroll eligible beneficiaries through June 30, 2021.

The Department of Health and Human Services through June 26 has reduced by 43% its backlog of Medicare appeals at the Administrative Law Judge level, according to a status report the agency provided today to a federal court.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention joined the World Health Organization to declare the end of the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Department of Justice urged the Supreme Court to strike down the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, including its protections for pre-existing conditions and expansion of the Medicaid program.

As many front-line health care workers move beyond the immediate pandemic crisis, now is the time to reflect on the psychological toll, writes Jesse Burgard, a regional chief mental health officer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and AHA Behavioral Health Services Council member.

The Food and Drug Administration added the AustinP51 emergency-use system to its list of ventilator authorized for emergency use in health care settings to treat adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 892,000 consumers in states using the HealthCare.gov platform gained 2020 coverage since the end of open enrollment through May by using a Special Enrollment Period, a 27% increase from the same period last year, according to a report released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated and expanded its list of people at risk of severe COVID-19 illness, the agency said.

A therapeutic, two-antibody COVID-19 treatment “cocktail” from Regeneron and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority moved to its first clinical trial, the developers earlier this month announced.

The American Medical Association announced a new Current Procedural Terminology code (87426) for reporting antigen testing to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection on medical claims.

AHA urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to temporarily extend certain waivers and make others permanent beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency to allow hospitals to provide better and more cost effective care to their patients and communities.

Expanding access to telehealth services to provide much more patient-centered, convenient care. Creating additional health care workforce capacity and avoiding workforce shortages. Removing barriers for patients and communities to access needed care.