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The latest stories from AHA Today.
Testifying yesterday at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on antitrust enforcement oversight, the assistant attorney general for antitrust at the Department of Justice suggested that the proposed mergers of Aetna and Humana and Anthem and Cigna demand careful scrutiny to protect…
The Senate today voted 94-1 to approve the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (S. 524), bipartisan legislation to address the nation’s opioid epidemic. The bill would establish an interagency task force to develop best practices for pain management and medication prescribing, and…
Death rates continue to decline for all cancers combined and for most cancer sites for men and women of all major racial and ethnic groups, according to the latest annual report to the nation on the status of cancer. The overall cancer death rate decreased 1.5% per year between 2003 and 2012,…
Delaware hospitals contributed more than $275 million in community benefits to the state in fiscal year 2014, an increase of more than $9 million since FY 2011, according to a new report by the Delaware Healthcare Association. The total includes the value of community benefit programs, charity care…
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today approved seven more bills for inclusion in an Innovations package, which could serve as a companion to the House-passed 21st Century Cures bill. The Medical Electronic Data Technology Enhancement for Consumer’s Health Act (…
Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Patty Murray (D-WA), Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) this week released draft legislation to address the nation’s mental health crisis, which the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will mark up on March 16.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today released data on services provided to Medicare beneficiaries by more than 15,000 skilled nursing facilities in 2013. For each SNF and resource utilization group, the data sets provide the number of stays, days and beneficiaries served; and…
Spending on prescription drugs rose by 12.6% in 2014 and is projected to rise by an average 7.3% annually through 2018, according to a new report by the Department of Health and Human Services. The total number of prescriptions rose about 11% between 2010 and 2014, while expenditures rose 26%…
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today released a proposed rule to test new models for how Medicare Part B pays for prescription drugs provided in physician offices and hospital outpatient departments. Medicare Part B currently pays physicians and HOPDs the average sales price…
The Department of Health and Human Services is arranging and funding shipments of blood products from the continental United States to Puerto Rico, the first of which arrived Saturday, to ensure an adequate supply of safe blood as the island experiences active Zika virus transmission.