News

The number of drug overdose deaths involving heroin or methamphetamine more than tripled between 2011 and 2016 to 4,571 and 6,762 per year, respectively, while deaths involving cocaine nearly doubled between 2014 and 2016 to 11,316 per year.

The House of Representatives today passed AHA-supported legislation (H.R. 1318) that would provide funding for states to develop maternal mortality review committees to better understand maternal complications and identify solutions.

Early results from studies to better understand how duodenoscopes are reprocessed in real-world settings have found higher than expected contamination rates after reprocessing.

The Internal Revenue Service yesterday issued interim guidance regarding the treatment of qualified transportation fringe benefit expenses paid or incurred after Dec. 31, 2017.

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday released revised draft guidance for facilities that compound human drugs as outsourcing facilities.

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved a mobile medical application to help increase retention in outpatient treatment programs for opioid use disorder.

Employees contributed an average of $1,415 toward premiums for single coverage and $5,218 for family coverage in 2017, according to a report released last week by the Commonwealth Fund.

Transforming a park overrun with drug dealers and gangs into a safe, open space for recreation and activities for all ages, including youth and older adults.

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee Friday released a report summarizing initial efforts by its Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee to address the nation’s cybersecurity challenges.

Inpatient rehabilitation facilities and long-term care hospitals have until Jan. 2 to review confidential provider reports based on quality data from second-quarter 2017 to first-quarter 2018 before updated performance is publicly reported on the IRF Compare and LTCH Compare websites in March 2019.

Nine health insurance, employer and consumer organizations today proposed guiding principles for federal legislative action to protect patients from surprise medical bills.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement today released a white paper intended to help health system boards assess and improve their quality oversight processes.

Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.24 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted 5,228,200 people.

“No one should expect that the benefits hospitals provide will be the same for every community,” AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack says in a letter to the editor of Modern Helathcare.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission this week discussed several draft recommendations for Congress, which the panel could vote on in January.

AHA today urged the Department of Homeland Security to withdraw a proposed rule that could limit legal immigrants’ future immigration status if they receive benefits from Medicaid, the Medicare Part D low-income subsidy, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or select housing programs.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today issued a final rule maintaining the current methodology for calculating risk-adjustment transfers in the individual and small group health insurance markets for benefit year 2018.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services yesterday released answers to additional frequently asked questions on a fiscal year 2019 inpatient prospective payment system final rule provision requiring hospitals to publicly post their charges in a machine-readable format at least annually.

AHA today commented on the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics’ draft predictability roadmap, which proposes how the Department of Health and Human Services could improve the development, adoption and implementation of administrative standards and operating rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will use frequently-updated payroll-based data to identify nursing homes that have a significant drop in staffing levels on weekends, or several days in a quarter without a registered nurse on site.