News

More than 206,000 people selected a 2021 health plan through the federally facilitated marketplace Feb. 15-28, the first two weeks of a special enrollment period created in response to the COVID-19 emergency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports.

Kearny County Hospital in Lakin, Kansas, launched the Pioneer Baby program with KU School of Medicine-Wichita in 2015 to improve pregnancy and birth outcomes.

The AHA voiced support for Vivek Murthy, M.D., to serve as United States surgeon general for a second time.

Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Todd Young, R-Ind., Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, AHA-supported legislation that aims to prevent suicide, burnout and behavioral health disorders among health care professionals. Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., also introduced the legislation in the House of Representatives. 

Cyber attackers are using Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities to access Exchange server email accounts on an organization’s premises and install malware to facilitate long-term access to victim environments, the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center announced.

The Senate Finance Committee voted 14-14 along party lines on President Biden’s nomination of Xavier Becerra to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

In this AHA Physician Alliance podcast, Amy Ahasic, M.D., section chief for pulmonary and critical care medicine at Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut, shares how she applied skills learned from the Women’s Wellness through Equity and Leadership Project to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

With Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reminding U.S. health care personnel about its Ebola infection control guidance.

The Food and Drug Administration has called on 25 firms to stop producing and issuing so-called “FDA registration certificates” to mask, respirator, face shield and other medical device makers and distributors that create the impression that FDA has approved or authorized their products.

The National Emergency Tele-Critical Care Network offers hospitals and health systems needing clinical support to care for seriously ill COVID-19 patients free telehealth access to critical care physicians, nurses and other clinical experts.

At a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing , health care stakeholders urged Congress to consider how to ensure flexibilities remain for patients and health care providers in telehealth beyond the public health emergency.

The National Institutes of Health has halted a clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of COVID-19 convalescent plasma in emergency department patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms and at least one risk factor for severe COVID-19 after an independent board concluded from the data that the treatment was unlikely to help such patients.

AHA voiced support for the National Coronavirus Commission Act (S. 412), legislation that would create a national commission to examine lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and how to improve public health readiness.

President Biden today announced a major partnership between Johnson & Johnson and Merck to manufacture the latest COVID-19 vaccine to be authorized for emergency use in the U.S.

The AHA, American Medical Association, American Health Care Association, National Association for Home Care & Hospice, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, and Association for Clinical Oncology urged Senate leaders to extend the moratorium on the Medicare sequester cuts beyond March 31.

Saint Anthony Hospital on Chicago’s southwest side is helping to meet its core mission of serving all in need of care with a recently launched maternal health care initiative and intervention program.

A recent JAMA article, “recycles old and tired arguments about hospital consolidation without any examination of the impact of consolidation in the commercial health insurance industry or related health care sectors that promise to have a profound impact on the cost, quality and accessibility of health care for consumers,” AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack writes in a new blog post.

The AHA voiced support for the Telehealth Modernization Act (S.368), legislation that would remove geographic and originating site restrictions to allow patients to receive telehealth in their homes and other locations.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services allocated $2.3 million in additional funding to current navigator grant recipients in the 28 states using the federally facilitated marketplace to help enroll consumers in marketplace, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance coverage during the special enrollment period that runs through May 15. 

The federal government has agreed to purchase at least 100,000 doses of the combination monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab and etesevimab, Eli Lilly and Company announced.