News

An AHA advertorial published in the Wall Street Journal highlights the growing challenges facing the nation’s health care workforce, how America’s hospitals and health systems are working to support them, and the need for policymakers at every level of government to do the same.

The AHA released its latest edition of the COVID-19 Snapshot underscoring the persisting challenges facing hospitals and health systems during the ongoing public health emergency.

President Biden announced his plan for responding to COVID-19 surges and the new omicron variant this winter.

The House will vote later on a continuing resolution to extend funding for federal programs through Feb. 18.

A federal district court in Louisiana late yesterday issued a preliminary injunction placing a temporary hold on enforcement of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services vaccine mandate for health care facilities in all states, except the 10 already covered by the Missouri district court’s preliminary injunction issued on Nov. 29.

The California and San Francisco Departments of Public Health have confirmed the first case of the omicron variant in the United States in an individual in California who was fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and returned Nov. 22 from South Africa, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today.

Teleflex has recalled a percutaneous thrombolytic device kit due to reports that a component could detach from the device and embolize.

The Food and Drug Administration’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee late yesterday voted to recommend an emergency use authorization for Merck’s investigational oral antiviral COVID-19 medicine. The drug, molnupiravir, is meant for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in at-risk adults.

Pfizer yesterday asked the Food and Drug Administration to expand the emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine booster to include youth aged 16 and 17. 

New HIV infections declined among white gay and bisexual men but remained higher and relatively stable among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino gay and bisexual men between 2010 and 2019, according to a report released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week released two guidance documents to help states and territories maintain Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage for elig

Twenty-five organizations, including the AHA, today urged Congress to immediately extend the hold on payment cuts and the private payer data reporting period under the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule due to the continued COVID-19 public health emergency. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week released a FAQ clarifying when the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments apply to over-the-counter home tests, including COVID-19 tests.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) last week advised biotechnology companies specifically and the health care and public health sector generally to review a new report on a malware threat aggressively spreading through the biomanufacturing industry and take appropriation action to protect their information infrastructure.

The AHA and seven other national organizations representing hospitals and health systems today urged congressional leaders to act before yearend to extend the moratorium on Medicare sequester cuts and prevent the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go sequester from taking effect.

The Coalition to Protect America’s Health Care, whose members include the AHA, today launched a television ad and digital campaign urging Congress to stop the forthcoming Medicare sequester cuts and statutory PAYGO sequester. 

President Biden today called the new Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus “a cause for concern, not a cause for panic,” urging all eligible Americans to get vaccinated and all eligible adults to get a booster if they haven’t already.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri today granted a preliminary injunction preventing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from enforcing its vaccine mandate rule in Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming pending a full judicial review of the mandate’s legality.

Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., Lisa Blunt-Rochester, D-Del., and Richard Hudson, R-N.C., last week introduced in the House the Leveraging Integrated Networks in Communities to Address Social Needs Act (H.R. 6072), AHA-supported legislation that would provide funding for states to create or enhance public-private partnerships to coordinate health and social services.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released 11 documents related to the agency’s regulations implementing the No Surprises Act.