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The latest stories from AHA Today.
House Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) last night introduced a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government through Feb. 16 and the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years. The bill also would delay the Affordable Care Act’s medical device tax and…
Kenneth Bowman, division vice president for Kindred Rehabilitation Services at Kindred Healthcare, will serve as 2018 council chair of the AHA’s Section for Long-Term Care and Rehabilitation. Derrick Jones, CEO of Lovelace UNM Rehabilitation Hospital in Albuquerque, NM, is council chair-elect and…
The AHA generally supports the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ proposals to increase flexibility in plan design, cost sharing and enrollment for the Medicare Advantage and prescription drug programs in 2019, but recommends caution to ensure that the added flexibility provides value…
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., today issued an update on the agency’s efforts to address ongoing shortages of intravenous saline. “Based on the information we’re receiving from companies and the actions we’ve taken at FDA, we continue to expect that the shortage of IV fluids will improve in…
The share of U.S. adults without health insurance rose by 1.3 percentage points, or an estimated 3.2 million people, in 2017 to 12.2%, according to the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index. That’s the largest increase since the index began tracking the adult uninsured rate in 2008, but well below the…
A recent Modern Healthcare article analyzing charity care spending by 20 large health systems “gives readers an inaccurate and incomplete picture of how hospitals and health systems provide tremendous benefit to both patients and their communities, and do so while facing many challenges in…
Hospital emergency department visits related to alcohol use increased 47% between 2006 and 2014, or an average 210,000 per year, outpacing the increase for any other cause, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Rates increased more…
Kathleen Becker, president of SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital in St. Louis, will lead the AHA's Constituency Section for Metropolitan Hospitals as 2018 chair of its governing council. Dennis Pullin, president and CEO of Virtua Health in Marlton, NJ, is council chair-elect and will become…
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission yesterday recommended that Congress increase Medicare base payment rates for hospital inpatient and outpatient services by 1.25% in 2019, as provided under current law. In other voting, the commission recommended that the Health and Human Services Secretary…
The flu hospitalization rate rose to 22.7 per 100,000 people in the first week of January from 17.7 the prior week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today. Every state but Hawaii reported widespread flu activity, while the District of Columbia has local activity. H3N2 A…