Special Bulletin

The American Hospital Association (AHA)  sends members Special Bulletins on the latest health care news, legislation, and advocacy opportunities for hospitals and health systems.

The Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury (“the departments”) Aug. 20 released a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) related to provisions in the No Surprises Act and the Transparency in Coverage final rule. As requested several times by the AHA, the departments…
The Food and Drug Administration today granted full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for individuals age 16 and over. The vaccine, which will now be marketed as Comirnaty, is the first COVID-19 vaccine to go beyond emergency use status in the United States.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today issued a Health Plan Management System memo to all Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAO) and Medicare-Medicaid Plans to strongly encourage them to waive or relax plan prior authorization requirements and utilization management processes…
The Hospital Price Transparency rule has been in effect since Jan. 1, 2021, requiring hospitals to disclose all of their privately negotiated rates with health plans, in addition to self-pay and chargemaster rates. Hospitals are also required to provide an online patient cost estimator tool or…
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Aug. 2 issued its hospital inpatient prospective payment system (PPS) and long-term care hospital (LTCH) PPS final rule for fiscal year (FY) 2022.
This Special Bulletin reviews highlights of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ FY 2022 final rule for the long-term care hospital prospective payment system.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) July 29 issued its fiscal year (FY) 2022 final rules for the inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) and skilled-nursing facility (SNF) prospective payment systems (PPS).
The Senate last night voted 67-32 to move forward on a roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package. A bipartisan group of senators and the White House agreed on a deal yesterday afternoon. Legislative language has not been released yet. The Senate could vote on the legislation in the next…
The AHA released a series of public service announcements (PSA) and supporting materials that encourage people to seek the answers they need and ask the questions that will help them understand and become confident in the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.