News

The Biden Administration will make over 170 million doses of the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster available to Americans for free at pharmacies, doctor’s offices, health centers, and state and local health departments, the White House announced today.

Twenty-six organizations, including the AHA, today urged congressional leaders to enact the Saving Access to Laboratory Services Act (H.R.8188, S.4499), bipartisan legislation that would update Medicare’s payment system for clinical diagnostic lab services and reporting requirements for labs.

A new report from the AHA highlights the variety of causes that resulted in 136 rural hospital closures from 2010 to 2021, and a record 19 closures in 2020 alone. These include many longstanding pressures, such as low reimbursement, staffing shortages, low patient volume and regulatory barriers, as well as the continued financial challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Philips Respironics has recalled more than 17 million masks used with Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure and Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machines because the masks contain magnets that could cause serious injury to people with implanted metallic medical devices or other objects, the Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday. Philips has reported 14 serious injuries related to using the masks, including pacemaker failure, arrhythmia, seizures and irregular blood pressure. BPAP and CPAP machines are used by people with obstructive sleep apnea, respiratory insufficiency or respiratory failure — health conditions that cause breathing pauses during sleep.

The Department of Health and Human Services yesterday awarded AmerisourceBergen a $19.8 million contract to speed delivery of monkeypox vaccine and treatments from the Strategic National Stockpile to U.S. jurisdictions. The SNS to date has shipped over 800,000 vials of JYNNEOS vaccine and 37,000 treatment courses of TPOXX, an investigational antiviral treatment for monkeypox.

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week issued a proposed rule designed to remove Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollment barriers and retain coverage for individuals when the COVID-19 public health emergency and related continuous eligibility requirements eventually end. CMS will accept comments on the proposed rule through Nov. 7.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services seeks comments through Nov. 4 on the challenges individuals face accessing health care services through CMS programs; impact of CMS policies and requirements on provider well-being and retention; strategies to address health inequities and social determinants of health; and recommendations to improve or make permanent waivers and flexibilities provided in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency to further reduce burden and address health disparities.

Commenting yesterday on the physician fee schedule proposed rule for calendar year 2023, AHA said it appreciates the proposals to support care delivery and patient outcomes, particularly those to improve Medicare Shared Savings Program stability and flexibility.

The AHA today released strategies for building your workforce team, the final section in its three-part guide to strengthening the health care workforce. Today’s section focuses on recruitment and retention, diversity and inclusion, and creative staffing models. Sections 1 and 2 focus on supporting the team; and using data and technology to support the workforce.

Accountable care organizations in the Medicare Shared Savings Program generated over $1.6 billion in savings to Medicare in 2021, CMS announced.

Hospitals and health systems added 14,700 jobs in August, while U.S. jobs overall increased by 315,000, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

On Sept. 8, FEMA will repeat its recent webinar on a proposed new approach to reimburse hospitals for COVID-19 Public Assistance projects involving patient care revenue.

The CDC recommended Pfizer’s updated COVID-19 vaccine booster for Americans aged 12 and older and Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine booster for Americans aged 18 and older, as recommended by its vaccine advisory committee.

Medicare patients who accessed opioid use disorder treatment through telehealth services during the pandemic were more likely to stay in treatment and less likely to experience an overdose than patients without telehealth access to OUD treatment, according to a federal study published last week in JAMA Psychiatry.

In this episode – part four of AHA’s five-part series on opioid stewardship – Marie Cleary-Fishman, AHA’s vice president of clinical quality, is joined once again by Holly Geyer, M.D., hospital internal medicine practitioner subspecialized in addiction medicine at Mayo Clinic. The discussion: encouraging careful and selective use of long-term opioid therapy in the context of managing chronic pain through evidence-based prescribing guidelines; educating staff and patients; and improving the referral-to-treatment process.

The Biden Administration this week announced it will host on Sept. 28 the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to identify steps the government and public and private sectors should take to address the intersections between food, hunger, nutrition and health.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services over the Labor Day weekend will transition to a new email service. As a result, CMS will not be able to send or receive email during this time. Stakeholders are asked to hold emails until Tuesday, Sept. 6, to avoid any errors.

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday announced it has amended the emergency use authorizations for Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines to account for new, bivalent formulations designed to install immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant.

AHA yesterday submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in response to a request for information on the Medicare Advantage program. AHA in its letter raised concerns over certain Medicare Advantage organization practices and policies that restrict or delay access to care; provided considerations for health equity, behavioral health access, and post-acute care services; outlined implications for continued enrollment growth in the program; and described the unique value that integrated health systems provide in serving Medicare Advantage beneficiaries.

A new Kaufman Hall analysis noted that U.S. hospitals and health systems are experiencing some of the worst margins since the beginning of the pandemic, and 2022 continues to be on pace to be the worst year of the pandemic in terms of financial performance. Expenses remain at historic highs, leaving hospitals with cumulatively negative margins.