News

The American Medical Association released for immediate use Current Procedural Terminology codes for reporting on medical claims two laboratory tests (87636 and 87637) that simultaneously detect the COVID-19 virus, influenza A/B and respiratory syncytial virus.

The National Institutes of Health’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative awarded $98.4 million in contracts to scale up and manufacture new COVID-19 testing technologies.

The Food and Drug Administration released guidance and a briefing document outlining the key data needed to support an emergency use authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate and further explaining the EUA process.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance on how COVID-19 spreads to acknowledge published reports showing “limited, uncommon” circumstances where people with COVID-19 infected others who were more than 6 feet away.

A recent analysis from the Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation provides an incomplete picture of U.S. spending on health care while downplaying the “immense role” that drug costs play, writes Aaron Wesolowski, AHA’s vice president of policy research, analytics and strategy, for the AHA Stat Blog.

Pediatric hospitalization rates appear to increase when unemployment levels rise, according to a study of 14 states between 2002 and 2014, reported in Health Affairs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidance to help health care and public health providers prevent HIV outbreaks among people who inject drugs, including considerations for delivering services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 cases in Arizona fell 75% between July 13 and Aug. 7 after sustained community mitigation measures that promoted social distancing, required or encouraged mask wearing, limited large gatherings, and paused business operations where mask use and social distancing were difficult to maintain, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released guidance on how it will implement its August interim final rule that makes collecting and reporting COVID-19 data a condition of participation for hospitals that participate in Medicare.

In this first in a series of AHA blogs about reducing stigma, Richard Bottner, a physician assistant and affiliate faculty member at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, and Rebecca Chickey, AHA senior director of behavioral health services, unveil a new website and training to reduce stigma for patients with opioid and other substance use disorders.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released an updated Frequently Asked Questions document on the five-year bundled payment model for radiation oncology that will be mandatory in certain areas of the country beginning Jan. 1.

The Food and Drug Administration on Oct. 7 will host the first in a series of virtual Town Halls to answer technical questions about test development and validation for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The AHA continues to oppose the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ policy to include Medicare Advantage patient days when calculating the Medicare fraction of a hospital’s disproportionate patient percentage for the Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital program, and objects to the agency’s Aug. 6 proposal to apply the policy retroactively, the association told the agency.

To continue amplifying the important message to protect against both the flu and COVID-19, AHA’s Wear A Mask and United Against the Flu campaigns have released new resources, including sample social media messages geared toward different age groups and graphics and videos on the importance of masking up and getting a flu shot.

President Trump issued an executive order creating a cabinet-level working group to develop a federal plan to better coordinate services to prevent suicide and mental and behavioral health conditions in vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responding to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ physician fee schedule proposed rule for calendar year 2021, the AHA said it appreciates the agency’s effort to continue certain pandemic-era policies that have helped hospitals and health systems ensure access to care for patients during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The AHA submitted comments on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ outpatient prospective payment system and ambulatory surgical center payment system proposed rule for calendar year 2021.

The Department of Health and Human Services opened the application process for $20 billion in funds from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a critical need for care that is customized, patient-centered, cost-effective and, most of all, successful. Team-based care checks all of these boxes and more.

This AHA Advancing Health podcast discusses using the “4Ms” framework for building a culture that addresses the unique care needs of older adult patients while improving value.