News

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar yesterday declared a public health emergency for Puerto Rico.

Almost 8.3 million people selected a 2020 health plan through www.HealthCare.gov during open enrollment, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in an update yesterday.

A new AHA TrendWatch report provides an overview of the current national health care workforce and examples of hospitals and health systems’ responses to trend shifts.

The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee today held a hearing on a number of health care bills, including those that would reauthorize the AHA-supported Healthy Start program and continue Medicaid coverage for non-emergency medical transportation.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has delayed 2020 private payer data reporting for the Clinical Diagnostic Test Payment System until 2021 for tests that are not advanced diagnostic laboratory tests, as required by recent legislation extending funding for federal programs through fiscal year 2020.

Ninety-eight percent of eligible clinicians and 97% of rural practices who participated in the 2018 Quality Payment Program through the Merit-based Incentive Payment System track will receive a positive payment adjustment in 2020.

Hospitals participating in the Medicare Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Program reduced spending for lower extremity joint replacements over three years by an average 1.6 percent more than hospitals that did not participate, with no change in quality, according to a study reported last week in Health Affairs.

Members of the Aligning for Health coalition, whose members include the AHA, yesterday along with other organizations urged leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the Social Determinants Accelerator Act (H.R. 4004) and other opportunities to address the social determinants of health.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services yesterday announced proposed changes to the risk adjustment model for Medicare Advantage organizations and certain demonstrations for calendar year 2021.

Brad Smith, former chief operating officer for Anthem’s Diversified Business Group, will serve as director of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation and senior advisor to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar for value-based transformation, Azar and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma announced yesterday.

Twenty states and the District of Columbia Friday petitioned the Supreme Court to review this term a recent federal appeals court decision that held the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate unconstitutional.

As requested by AHA, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently extended to Feb. 1 at 5 p.m. ET the comment deadline for its Medicaid fiscal accountability proposed rule.

The Department of Health and Human Services has reduced its backlog of Medicare appeals at the Administrative Law Judge level by 31.4%, to 292,517, since AHA and three member hospitals and health systems won a legal challenge to the backlog in November 2018.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dec. 31 issued a notice making corrections to the area wage index and other policies contained in its final rule for the calendar year 2020 outpatient prospective payment and ambulatory surgery center payment systems.  

Kansas Hospital Association president and CEO Tom Bell will retire in September, the association announced last week.

Watch the video below to learn more about her background, key priorities and what she is most excited about for her year as AHA chair.

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees yesterday asked six health insurers and two physician staffing companies to provide certain information by Jan. 9 “to understand better why surprise billing occurs, the policies and practices that help protect individuals from surprise billing, and the current incentives behind the negotiations between providers and insurers."

The AHA today commented on the Food and Drug Administration’s draft guidance for industry and FDA staff on clinical decision support software as part of the agency’s efforts to implement Section 3060(a) of the 21st Century Cures Act.

More than 8.3 million people selected a 2020 health plan through HealthCare.gov Nov. 1 to Dec. 17, including more than 4.4 million last week.

The Government Accountability Office this week released a report on the potential benefits and challenges of expanding the Medicare Graduate Medical Education Program to include graduate training for nurse practitioners and physician assistants.