News

“America’s hospitals and health systems congratulate President-elect Biden and look forward to working with him and his incoming Administration to make progress on the important issues facing the health care field, and the patients and communities we serve,” AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said after several media outlets called the election for Joe Biden.

The Department of Health and Human Services should fully reinstate its June COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund reporting requirements, AHA said again in a letter to the agency. On Oct. 22, the department partially restored the requirements, but not the ability of hospitals to calculate lost revenue on a monthly basis or use a budgeted-to-actual comparison.

Job growth continued in October, but at a slower pace than this summer, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The health care field added 58,300 jobs, increasing to a seasonally adjusted 15.9 million.

A new AHA issue brief describes how hospitals and health systems can partner with legal organizations or attorneys to meet patients’ social needs and improve community health.

Join AHA and AVIA Nov. 9-13 for a Health Equity and Diversity Week discussion about addressing health care disparities.

The Federal Communications Commission will accept applications to the Connected Care Pilot Program today through Dec. 7.

The AHA continued its ongoing effort to speak out against misinformation about federal relief funding for hospitals, challenging an assertion by an article in the Los Angeles Times that billions in federal funds allocated during the COVID-19 public health emergency is “padding bottom lines at some of the country’s most profitable businesses,” hospitals and health systems included.

More than 700 women die from pregnancy- and delivery-related complications every year, with thousands more suffering from severe health problems related to pregnancy, write AHA’s Robyn Begley, R.N., senior vice president and chief nursing officer and CEO of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership, and Priya Bathija, vice president of strategic initiatives, who note that such deaths are disproportionately affecting communities of color due to implicit biases and disparities.

Eligible family members of front-line health care workers and volunteers who lose their lives to COVID-19 can apply to the Brave of Heart Fund for grants to support common needs such as funeral costs, medical care, counseling, food, education, mortgage payments and living expenses.

We shouldn’t be surprised by now, but 2020 continues to be an extraordinary year … and it’s not over yet.

The National Council for Behavioral Health Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. ET will host a call on improving patient care and addressing persistent health disparities and unconscious bias rooted in systemic racism.

AHA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer Robyn Begley and Microsoft’s Molly McCarthy highlight a free course to help health care leaders prepare to implement artificial intelligence tools to drive innovation, process improvement and better patient outcomes

Kevin Sowers, president of the Johns Hopkins Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine, joined AHA Board Chair Melinda Estes, M.D., today to discuss how hospitals can move from relief, recovery, and rebuilding to reimagining and innovation.

In this AHA blog post, Sean Marotta, AHA outside counsel, shares five things to look for when the Supreme Court hears oral argument Nov. 10 in the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its recommended practices to prevent and control infection in health care settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Tomorrow is the deadline for hospitals and other health care providers to apply for a portion of $20 billion in funds from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund.

The American Hospital Association and Microsoft now offer a free, one-hour course, for continuing education credits, to guide health care teams through key considerations and specific actions for AI’s responsible and strategic implementation.

The Department of Health and Human Services published a proposed rule that would require the agency to assess certain significant regulations every 10 years to determine whether those regulations instead are subject to review under the Regulatory Flexibility Act.

Pregnant women with COVID-19 are more likely than their non-pregnant counterparts to be admitted to an intensive care unit, receive invasive ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or die, according to a study of 461,825 women with symptomatic COVID-19 released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Food and Drug Administration reminded clinical laboratory staff and health care providers to follow recommended steps to prevent false positive results from antigen tests for the COVID-19 virus, citing reports of false positives in nursing homes and other settings.