News

AHA’s The Value Initiative is providing new resources to support hospitals’ and health systems’ efforts to adopt hospital-at-home care for patients who need acute-level care but are considered stable enough to be safely monitored from their homes.

The FDA this week revised and reissued its August emergency use authorization for COVID-19 convalescent plasma to treat hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The revised EUA adds the Mount Sinai COVID-19 ELISA IgG Antibody Test as an acceptable test for qualifying high and low titer COVID-19 convalescent plasma.

About two years ago, the Buprenorphine Team — or B team — was formed at Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas, in collaboration with Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. Our goal is to offer Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications for patients with opioid use disorder who are admitted to the hospital and then transition that care to the community setting at discharge.

AHA speaks with two companies using the HealthEquip app to connect individuals and organizations with personal protective equipment to hospitals that need it through AHA’s 100 Million Mask Challenge.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the calendar year 2021 outpatient prospective payment system/ambulatory surgical center final rule. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced shorter quarantine options based on local circumstances and resources, for people exposed to the COVID-19 virus.

The AHA launched a new periodic report to convey to congressional staff hospitals’ and health systems’ desperate need for a new COVID-19 relief package.

Reps. Bradley Schneider, D-Ill., and David McKinley, R-W.Va., introduced the Medicare Sequester COVID Moratorium Act, AHA-supported legislation that would extend the moratorium on the Medicare sequester cuts through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commercial health plans are using prior authorization and payment delays and denials to make it more difficult for some Americans to access the care they need, creating an extensive approval process that wastes billions of dollars and contributes to clinician burnout, according to a report released by the AHA.

An independent advisory group for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended health care personnel and long-term care facility residents receive vaccinations against COVID-19 in the program’s initial phase.

The Department of Health and Human Services should provide greater flexibility around health care staffing, provider resource allocation and accessibility to care, the AHA said in a letter to the agency.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on defending communities from cyber threats during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looks at an outbreak of Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB), an antibiotic-resistant bacteria, at a New Jersey hospital managing resource shortages during a surge in COVID-19 patients.

In an open letter to the American public, the AHA, along with the American Medical Association and American Nurses Association, affirmed their support for vaccines as a critical means for protecting individuals, communities and loved ones from COVID-19.

A bipartisan group in the Senate introduced a $908 billion proposal aimed at breaking the stalemate over more COVID-19 relief.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the AHA’s Report of the Special Committee on the Provision of Health Services, the AHA looks back on a report that served as a blueprint for a number of proposals for decades to come on national health insurance and health care reform.

Claire Zangerle, R.N., chief nurse executive at Allegheny Health Network, will join AHA Board Chair Melinda Estes, M.D., Dec. 3 at 3:30 p.m. ET to discuss how hospitals can support their workforce as they move past relief, recovery and rebuilding toward reimagining health care and innovation.

Effective Feb. 1, physicians and other health care providers and suppliers should use new National Uniform Billing Committee condition codes on claims for COVID-19 and other treatments authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use or expanded access, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced.

The Food and Drug Administration released enforcement policy guidance for health care providers and others using dry heat systems to reduce bioburden on certain N95 and other respirators in limited supply to support reuse by health care personnel during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

As part of the generosity movement known as Giving Tuesday, this year held on Dec. 1, AHA is partnering with the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy and The Creative Coalition to encourage donations to Protect the Heroes.