News

“For three decades, the 340B drug pricing program has helped hospitals that serve high numbers of low-income patients offer and expand a range of important programs and services that advance health within their communities,” writes AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack in the Congress Blog at The Hill.

The Internal Revenue Service today finalized a rule revising its methodology for assessing whether employer-sponsored coverage is affordable for family members, as advocated by the AHA.

The Florida Hospital Association Research and Education Foundation has established a Health Care Heroes Relief Fund to provide immediate financial support to hospital employees displaced by Hurricane Ian. 

The FDA authorized for emergency use the first commercial test kit to detect monkeypox in lesion swab specimens.

During the COVID-19 public health emergency, CMS will continue to exercise enforcement discretion under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments to allow providers to test asymptomatic individuals using certain point-of-care SARS-CoV-2 tests authorized for symptomatic individuals, CMS announced.

It’s that time of year again … time to get a flu vaccine. We know that getting a flu vaccine is the best defense against seasonal influenza viruses and potentially severe consequences including hospitalization and death. And this flu season, many people can get a COVID-19 vaccine or booster at the same time.

The National Security Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and FBI yesterday urged U.S. critical infrastructure and other organizations to take certain actions to protect their systems from known vulnerabilities that China state-sponsored actors continue to exploit to target intellectual property and sensitive networks. In a separate presentation, the Department of Health and Human Services yesterday warned health care organizations that threat actors are increasingly using legitimate network security tools for malicious purposes.

Hospitals and health systems added 27,500 jobs in September, while U.S. jobs overall increased by 263,000, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As a precaution in response to the recent Ebola outbreak in Uganda, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection today began routing airline passengers destined for the United States who have been in Uganda within the previous 21 days to one of five airports for enhanced screening, the U.S. Embassy in Uganda announced.

COVID-19 vaccinations are associated with over 650,000 fewer hospitalizations and 300,000 fewer deaths in the Medicare population through December 2021, saving an estimated $16 billion in direct medical costs, the Department of Health and Human Services reported today.

The AHA is committed to helping hospitals and health systems support their people today, prepare them for tomorrow and build a pathway for the future.

More than 2.5 million students in grades 6-12 reported using electronic cigarettes in the past 30 days when surveyed this year, including 14% of high school students and 3% of middle school students, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today.

Public and private entities may apply through Jan. 6 for up to $100,000 each to plan and develop integrated health care networks to expand access to basic health care services, coordinate and improve care and outcomes, and advance health equity for rural underserved populations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today issued an advisory to remind U.S. clinicians of best practices for evaluating patients for suspected Ebola in the wake of the recent outbreak in Uganda.

The COVID-19 monoclonal antibody therapy Evusheld may not prevent COVID-19 caused by certain variants of the virus, the FDA announced this week.

Increasing bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccinations this year to 2020-2021 flu vaccination rates could prevent an additional 75,000 deaths and 745,000 hospitalizations and avert $44 billion in medical costs over the next six months, researchers estimate in a Commonwealth Fund blog post.

Nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and tribal organizations can apply though Jan. 6 for up to $6 million each to retrain current and former nurses and frontline health care workers.

CMS seeks comments through Dec. 6 on creating a National Directory of Healthcare Providers and Services to help patients locate providers and compare health plan networks, and reduce directory maintenance burden on providers and payers. 

Effective Oct. 1 for five years, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will pay Average Sales Price plus 8%, rather than ASP plus 6%, for biosimilars whose average sales price does not exceed the price of the reference biological product. The payment increase was included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Operating margins for U.S. hospitals and health systems were down 24% in August compared to a year ago, driven in large part by a 7.2% increase in labor expenses, according to data from over 900 hospitals reported yesterday by Kaufman Hall.