News

June 12–18 is Community Health Improvement Week. This annual recognition week focuses on how people at hospitals, health systems, national organizations and community organizations are working together to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities and advance health equity.

There is now consensus about what health care leaders and practitioners have long known: The conditions in which people live are major drivers of health and well-being.

Healthy lifestyles and summertime fun are the themes of AHA’s new social media toolkit promoting COVID-19 vaccination and boosters.

Mackinac Straits Health System was in dire financial straits, operating on only a few days of cash reserves. President and CEO Karen Cheeseman explains how the health system turned things around thanks to strategic planning and critical investments from community partners.

In a new AHA case study, Inova Health System credits its multidisciplinary team Safety Always for Everyone for reducing the severity and frequency of injuries in its emergency departments, behavioral health units and across the system.

The FBI and Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency this week advised all organizations to implement certain recommendations to defend their networks from the latest tactics by the CLOP ransomware gang, which include using a SQL injection vulnerability in Progress Software's managed file transfer solution to steal data.

The man supporting Ukraine through donations of ambulances and other vehicles is preparing his next delivery of front-line medical equipment to the war-torn nation. Now, Chris Manson of OSF HealthCare is seeking donations from hospitals and health systems to bolster his relief efforts.

As urged by the AHA, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will make a one-time adjustment to the 96-hour average annual patient length-of-stay requirement for critical access hospitals in the Medicare program to account for its blanket waiver of the requirement during the COVID-19 public health emergency, the agency announced today.

AHA today urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to make significant revisions to some of its proposed fiscal year 2024 policies for long-term care hospitals, saying the proposed payment reductions would harm “one of Medicare’s most severely ill patient populations and the entire health care field.”

Commenting today on the fiscal year 2024 inpatient prospective payment system proposed rule, AHA urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to use its authority to adjust the market basket update to account for what the agency missed in the FY 2022 market basket forecast and eliminate the FY 2024 productivity cut, among other changes.

When people see the blue and white “H” symbol, they think of healing, hope and health. Hospitals and health systems provide care to all who need it, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

The first data on the safety of a third mRNA COVID-19 vaccine dose among young children show that a third dose is safe for children ages 6 months to 5 years old, similar to findings for doses one and two.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services June 8 announced plans to test a new Medicare and Medicaid primary care model in eight states beginning in July 2024.

The Federal Trade Commission June 8 released for public comment a notice of proposed changes to breach notification requirements for entities that collect health information but are not covered by HIPAA’s privacy and security requirements.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services June 7 finalized a policy governing the treatment of Medicare P

Mergers and acquisitions are important tools that some hospitals use to manage financial pressures and increase access to care for patients, AHA told the Senate Finance Committee in a statement submitted for a hearing June 8 on consolidation and corporate ownership in health care. 

Communicating information is critical during emergencies and disasters.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized for marketing the first at-home over-the-counter test for COVID-19 using a traditional premarket review pathway rather than emergency use authorities.

The AHA is pushing back against a recent Health Affairs article that uses flawed, debunked methodology in an attempt to undermine hospitals through preconceived notions of how the field’s finances are managed.

Escalating costs associated with managing their own practice coupled with burdensome insurer policies and regulatory requirements are some of the factors driving physicians to seek employment in other practice settings, according to a new report released by the AHA.