News

The Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing on the COVID-19 pandemic and seniors, which focused on racial health disparities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently posted updated considerations for ending isolation for adults with COVID-19, based on new evidence.

When ordering COVID-19 laboratory tests or collecting specimens, health care providers should collect certain patient demographic information and responses to certain questions needed for COVID-19 data reporting, according to updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Department of Health and Human Services shared additional information on reporting requirements for recipients of provider relief funds authorized under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act.

Congress should allocate as part of the next COVID-19 relief package at least an additional $100 billion to the emergency relief fund to provide direct funding to front line health care personnel and providers, the AHA, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association wrote to Senate leaders.

Kimberlydawn Wisdom, M.D., senior vice president of community health and equity and chief wellness and diversity officer at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, shares valuable insights and innovations on bridging gaps of inequities in mental health care for communities in-need.

Federal Communication Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has named John Riggi, AHA senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk, to represent the field and the AHA on the agency’s Hospital Robocall Protection Group, which will issue best practices to combat unlawful robocalls to hospitals.

An estimated 2.8% of Indiana residents aged 12 or older randomly tested in late April had SARS-CoV-2 infection or antibodies, and 44% of those with active infections reported no symptoms, according to a July 21 report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., released separate legislative proposals that would make permanent certain Medicare telehealth flexibilities allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new analysis prepared for the AHA by Kaufman, Hall & Associates LLC highlights COVID-19’s dire impact on hospitals’ and health systems’ financial health.

An article published last July in the American Society for Health Care Risk Management’s Journal of Health Care Risk Management has received an APEX 2020 Award for Publication Excellence from Communications Concepts Inc

Ransomware attacks on hospitals are “threat-to-life crimes” because they directly threaten a hospital’s ability to provide patient care, writes John Riggi, AHA senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk.

The AHA’s Institute for Diversity and Health Equity and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois July 20 announced grant program awards to support the work of 13 Illinois hospitals and health care organizations in reducing disparities in health care.

The AHA July 18 issued a statement on the passing of Rep. John Lewis, a long-standing former member of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee and Chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight. Congressman Lewis was a close ally of America’s hospitals and a powerful advocate for the Medicare program, the Affordable Care Act and health equity.

The AHA July 20 submitted comments on proposed Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regulations that would support state flexibility in Medicaid drug value-based purchasing arrangements and other changes to the Medicaid drug rebate program for fiscal year 2021.

The AHA Board of Trustees July 20 announced the selection of Wright Lassiter III, president and CEO of Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, as its chair-elect designate. He will become AHA chair in 2022.

The Food and Drug Administration last week reissued its emergency use authorization of Quest Diagnostics’ SARS-CoV-2 rRT-PCR test for use with pooled samples containing up to four individual swab specimens collected under observation.

A COVID-19 trial vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca produced neutralizing antibody responses in patients with SARS-CoV-2, according to a study published July 20 in The Lancet.

The New England Journal of Medicine last week released a study showing that the use of dexamethasone resulted in a lower, 28-day mortality rate among patients receiving invasive ventilation or oxygen.

More than 350 hospital and health system leaders from across the country 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.