News

HIPAA-covered entities reported 609 breaches of unsecured protected health information in calendar year 2021, 7% fewer than in 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights reported in its latest annual report on the issue.

On Feb. 28, the National Library of Medicine will discontinue its Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders, which provides web-based and standalone applications to help emergency responders address hazardous material incidents

Acute care hospitals, physician group practices and Medicare accountable care organizations may apply through May 31 to participate in the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced Model for two years beginning in January, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced.

​​​​​​​The nation’s largest retail, payer and tech disruptors once again invested billions of dollars in health care in 2022, continuing to build out their visions to transform the field.

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday issued a report offering recommendations to address the opioid crisis and the role of analgesic oversight in preventing addiction, overdoses and deaths.

Completing the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 monovalent vaccine primary series protects children aged 3-5 and 3-4, respectively, against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection for at least four months, according to a study in those ages released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a report this week, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General identified 15 drug codes that in third-quarter 2022 met the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ criteria for substituting a lower Medicare price for certain Part B drugs.

A new blog from the AHA highlights a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services report that found that 70% of hospitals are in compliance with both parts of the Hospital Price Transparency Rule,

America’s hospitals and health systems are places of healing, hope, comfort and caring. Today, they also face many challenges that jeopardize their ability to always be there ready to care.

Medicare should continue to pay average sales price plus 6% for most separately payable Part B drugs, but cap ASP inflation, AHA told the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission in comments submitted today. 

In a blog published in Health Affairs, leaders from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released updated findings on hospital compliance with the Hospital Price Transparency Rule.

In a statement submitted to the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee for a hearing today on the nation’s health care workforce shortages and potential solutions, AHA said “long-building structural changes within the health care workforce, combined with the profound toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, have left hospitals and health systems facing a national staffing emergency.”  

Cris Daskevich, CEO and senior vice president, CHRISTUS Health, The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, will serve as 2023 chair of the AHA Committee on Maternal and Child Health.

The CMS Innovation Center will test three new models to see whether they lower high drug costs, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced yesterday.

The Blue Dot Human Trafficking Initiative at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore yesterday received a 2022 Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons for its innovative and holistic approach to the care and well-being of human trafficking victims.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services yesterday

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) yesterday released a guide to help health care organizations protect their internet-connected devices and networks from Distributed Denial of Service attacks, which can keep providers and patients from accessing critical resources such as electronic health records and software-based medical equipment.

The Food and Drug Administration Friday authorized for emergency use a real-time polymerase chain reaction test to detect mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) in lesion swab specimens from individuals whose health care provider suspects they have the virus

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology today announced the first six health information networks that will begin to implement the voluntary Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, a common set of rules required by the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016 and finalized last year to securely and more easily exchange health care information between networks and providers.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should require physician-owned hospitals to report their POH status on the Medicare enrollment application for institutional providers, AHA told the agency today. CMS has proposed removing a question on POH status from the application form (CMS-855A).