Six national organizations representing hospitals, including the AHA, urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to delay the start of repayments associated with the Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payment Programs. The first hospitals and health systems to receive accelerated payments are scheduled to start repaying them soon.
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) News
Below are links to AHA Today stories on novel coronavirus (COVID-19). For all coronavirus resources and news updates, visit our COVID-19 page.
Latest
A new AHA issue brief outlines five actions that hospitals and health systems can take to address housing instability and improve health in their communities during COVID-19.
Kittitas Valley Healthcare in Ellensburg, Wash., was among the nation’s first hospitals to feel the impact of COVID-19.
The Food and Drug Administration issued emergency use authorizations to Xiamen Biotime Biotechnology Co. and Access Bio Inc. for serology-based tests to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies indicating recent or prior infection.
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation signed a letter of interest to provide a $765 million loan to Eastman Kodak Company to repurpose and expand its facilities in Rochester, N.Y., and St. Paul, Minn., to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients in short supply.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority issued a $265 million task order reserving vaccine manufacturing capacity through December 2021 at an advanced manufacturing center in Texas.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released an updated snapshot of the impact of COVID-19 on the Medicare population, which includes COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations through June 20 and the first data for American Indian/Alaskan Native Medicare beneficiaries.
Senate Republicans released a series of bills aimed at addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saint Anthony Hospital, a safety-net hospital in Chicago, through its Community Wellness Programs has continued to provide free mental health services targeting minority and immigrant populations despite challenges due to COVID-19.
Atrium Health President and CEO Eugene Woods spoke on CBS’s Face the Nation about the lack of reagents for COVID-19 testing, racial disparities during the pandemic and treating thousands of COVID-19 patients in their homes.
Hologic Inc. received $7.6 million from the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense to increase production of supplies needed for COVID-19 testing, including custom sample collection and processing consumables.
The National Institutes of Health announced that a COVID-19 vaccine candidate co-developed by Moderna, Inc. and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has begun a phase 3 clinical trial.
The Food and Drug Administration reissued its emergency use authorization for the LabCorp COVID-19 RT-PCR Test to include authorized use for asymptomatic individuals and for pooled sample testing with up to five individual specimens.
COVID-19 has disproportionately affected communities of color throughout the nation, with minorities more likely to be infected and severely impacted by the virus. But its effect is more than physical.
The Food and Drug Administration updated its resource for labs performing authorized COVID-19 tests.
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced a series of free COVID-19 training sessions for both VA and non-VA clinicians.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Societal Experts Action Network, which responds to policy questions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, released guidance on strategies to encourage protective behaviors such as wearing a mask, social distancing and hand washing.
Even though Congress has passed several bills that provide some relief for hospitals during the COVID-19 health emergency, more must be done, said AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack in an interview with Washington, D.C.-based WONK-FM.
The Department of Health and Human Services formally renewed the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration.
With COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths on the rise in much of the country, negotiations on the next COVID-19 relief package are picking up in the Senate.