News

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will award states and territories another $227 million in funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act for COVID-19 vaccine preparedness and complementary activities, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced that it has begun distributing $24.5 billion in “Phase 3” funds from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund to eligible hospitals, as well as other providers.

The AHA invites hospitals and health systems to participate in the Better Maternal Outcomes Improvement Sprint, a free, six-week program focused on reducing harm from hypertension.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services seeks comments through Feb. 16 on a proposed Review Choice demonstration for inpatient rehabilitation facilities, which seeks to improve methods to investigate and prosecute Medicare fraud.

Dallas-based Parkland Health and Hospital System brings physical and behavioral health together by integrating suicide risk screenings in all patient visits, write the AHA’s Elisa Arespacochaga, vice president of the Physician Alliance, and Rebecca Chickey, senior director of behavioral health services field engagement.

Children and adolescents in Mississippi who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus were more likely to report close contact with someone with confirmed COVID-19 and less likely to report consistent mask use at school, according to a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The AHA released a new edition of the COVID-19 Snapshot, highlighting the critical needs of hospitals and health systems during the deepening public health emergency.

The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the first over-the-counter fully at-home diagnostic test for COVID-19. The antigen test for persons age 2 and older can detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a nasal swab sample in about 20 minutes.

Ahead of a Dec. 17 meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, the Food and Drug Administration released a briefing document confirming Moderna’s data on the safety and efficacy of the mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

 In an open letter, the AHA, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association thanked health care professionals for their dedication and sacrifices this year and urged them to continue their battle against COVID-19 by taking a vaccine and sharing their experience with others.

A bipartisan group of senators and representatives released legislative text for both the Emergency Coronavirus Relief Act of 2020, a $748 billion COVID-19 relief package that boosts funding for health care providers, vaccines and testing, and the Bipartisan State and Local Support and Small Business Protections Act that provides $160 billion in state and local aid, as well as certain liability protections for employers, which extend to health care providers in some instances.

The AHA, joined by four other national hospital groups and hospital pharmacists representing participants in the 340B drug pricing program, filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services over the department’s failure to enforce program requirements and halt drug company actions that undermine the program.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center are alerting organizations to a global cyberattack using a hidden back door or “trojanized” legitimate updates to the SolarWinds Orion performance monitoring platform to access public and private networks.

AHA commented on the No Surprises Act, bipartisan, bicameral legislation released Friday to address surprise medical bills.

Combining the anti-inflammatory drug baricitinib with the antiviral drug remdesivir reduced the median recovery time for hospitalized COVID-19 patients from eight to seven days, according to clinical trial results published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In this three-part series, Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas shares its most successful tools and approaches to help spot and reduce risk factors for suicide.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently posted information on how hospitals and other health care providers should bill Medicare for administering COVID-19 vaccines.

The Department of Health and Human Services Dec. 11 announced it would purchase from Moderna 100 million additional doses of its mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Following the Food and Drug Administration’s Dec. 11 emergency use authorization of Pfizer, Inc.’s BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, AHA released a Special Bulletin with important details for hospitals and health systems.

It was not at all the year I expected, and it certainly wasn’t the year any of us wanted. But, through it all, I continually found inspiration. Even now in the uncertainty of what 2021 will bring, I’m reassured knowing that no matter what, the teams who power our hospitals and health systems across America are continuing the fight against COVID-19.