News

Federal Communication Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has named John Riggi, AHA senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk, to represent the field and the AHA on the agency’s Hospital Robocall Protection Group, which will issue best practices to combat unlawful robocalls to hospitals.

An estimated 2.8% of Indiana residents aged 12 or older randomly tested in late April had SARS-CoV-2 infection or antibodies, and 44% of those with active infections reported no symptoms, according to a July 21 report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., released separate legislative proposals that would make permanent certain Medicare telehealth flexibilities allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new analysis prepared for the AHA by Kaufman, Hall & Associates LLC highlights COVID-19’s dire impact on hospitals’ and health systems’ financial health.

An article published last July in the American Society for Health Care Risk Management’s Journal of Health Care Risk Management has received an APEX 2020 Award for Publication Excellence from Communications Concepts Inc

Ransomware attacks on hospitals are “threat-to-life crimes” because they directly threaten a hospital’s ability to provide patient care, writes John Riggi, AHA senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk.

The AHA’s Institute for Diversity and Health Equity and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois July 20 announced grant program awards to support the work of 13 Illinois hospitals and health care organizations in reducing disparities in health care.

The AHA July 18 issued a statement on the passing of Rep. John Lewis, a long-standing former member of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee and Chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight. Congressman Lewis was a close ally of America’s hospitals and a powerful advocate for the Medicare program, the Affordable Care Act and health equity.

The AHA July 20 submitted comments on proposed Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regulations that would support state flexibility in Medicaid drug value-based purchasing arrangements and other changes to the Medicaid drug rebate program for fiscal year 2021.

The AHA Board of Trustees July 20 announced the selection of Wright Lassiter III, president and CEO of Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, as its chair-elect designate. He will become AHA chair in 2022.

The Food and Drug Administration last week reissued its emergency use authorization of Quest Diagnostics’ SARS-CoV-2 rRT-PCR test for use with pooled samples containing up to four individual swab specimens collected under observation.

A COVID-19 trial vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca produced neutralizing antibody responses in patients with SARS-CoV-2, according to a study published July 20 in The Lancet.

The New England Journal of Medicine last week released a study showing that the use of dexamethasone resulted in a lower, 28-day mortality rate among patients receiving invasive ventilation or oxygen.

More than 350 hospital and health system leaders from across the country participated in an AHA Virtual Advocacy Day to urge senators to include priorities that support hospitals and health systems in the next COVID-19 legislative package.

In 2016, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu spent one week together in deep discussion about joy. How to obtain it and hold on to it in a changing and often chaotic world.

AHA today urged a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., to overturn a Department of Health and Human Services rule requiring hospitals to disclose their confidential privately negotiated charg

Raymond Waller, hospital administrator at Ascension Brighton Center for Recovery in Brighton, Mich., and 2020 chair of AHA's Behavioral Health Council, looks at substance use rates, stigma and the lack of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) behavioral health care providers.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed a district court decision that found the Department of Health and Human Services exceeded its statutory authority when it reduced payments for hospital outpatient services furnished in off-campus provider-based departments grandfathered under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015.

The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response July 21 at 12 p.m. ET will host a COVID-19 webinar on “Critical Care: Lifesaving Treatment and Clinical Operations.”

The Food and Drug Administration at 8 p.m. will close its COVID-19 hotline for questions related to COVID-19 diagnostic tests and device shortages, including personal protective equipment and respirators.