News

Delivery-related maternal mortality in U.S. hospitals decreased for all racial and ethnic groups, age groups and modes of delivery during 2008 to 2021, likely due to national strategies to improve delivery-related hospital care, the Department of Health and Human Services reported.

A bipartisan group of 233 representatives and 61 senators called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service to enhance its proposal to streamline prior authorization processes in Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and the federally-facilitated Marketplace to require real-time electronic decision-making for routinely approved services, responses for emergency procedures within 24 hours and additional transparency.

In a letter submitted to the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for a hearing on challenges implementing value-based and alternative payment models under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, AHA encouraged certain statutory and regulatory policies to advance and flexibly implement these models.

A bipartisan group of 87 representatives urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to reevaluate its proposed payment update for the inpatient prospective payment system for fiscal year 2024, expressing concern that the proposed update does not accurately reflect the current costs of providing care to patients or the high financial pressures that hospitals face.

Waleed Javaid, M.D., director of infection prevention and control at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, shares successful strategies for eliminating healthcare-associated infections.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration today issued an advisory offering evidence-based resources to help clinicians assess and treat mental health symptoms and conditions associated with Long COVID, from fatigue and sleep disturbances to depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In a statement submitted to the Hou

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health today held a hearing on legislation to reauthorize and build on the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities (SUPPORT) Act of 2018.

Cone Health partnered with Guilford County in 2021 to create the first behavioral health urgent care center in North Carolina, quickly reducing hospital stays and emergency department visits for behavioral health while shrinking health disparities.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards June 19 signed into law state-level protections developed by the AHA. The Louisiana law prevents drug companies from denying, restricting, prohibiting or interfering with the acquisition or delivery of a 340B drug at a contract pharmacy.

June 22 at noon ET, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Climate Change and Health Equity will host a webinar to review the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax incentives to reduce emis

The Food and Drug Administration June 20 released guidance on a new voluntary pilot program intended to improve certain laboratory-developed tests used to identify patients for treatment with certain oncology drug products

The Department of Health and Human Services Friday alerted the health sector to a recent ransomware attack on a U.S. cancer center that reduced cancer treatment capability, rendered digital services unavailable and threatened exposure of patient personal health information.

In a blog about the third year of Juneteenth’s acknowledgement as a national holiday, Joy A. Lewis, AHA’s senior vice president for health equity strategies and executive director of the AHA Institute for Diversity and Health Equity, discusses the importance of the holiday becoming established as a day of scholarship and education, and an opportunity for hospitals and health systems to educate all employees on health equity causes. 

Men can provide important support for women during their pregnancy and help create better outcomes for mother and child. Dr. Amina Alio, from University of Rochester Medical Center, and Jonathan Webb, CEO of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, explore the role of fathers in maternal and child health.

President Biden intends to appoint as the next Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Mandy Cohen, M.D.

The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee June 15 voted unanimously to recommend updating the current COVID-19 vaccine composition for fall to a monovalent vaccine based on an XBB variant of the virus.

When someone known as a “relator” brings a False Claims Act lawsuit on behalf of another party, the federal government may seek to dismiss the FCA action over the relator’s objection, so long as it intervened sometime during or after the litigation, the Supreme Court ruled June 16.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency yesterday urged organizations to apply Progress Software updates  to the MOVEit Transfer web application to prevent ransomware attackers from exploiting a critical vulnerability used to steal data

AHA’s Leadership Summit, which will be held July 16-18 in Seattle, brings together many of the best minds in health care, medicine and technology with a shared passion for innovation as the road to advancing health.