News

The White House today hosted a summit on administration efforts to combat the opioid crisis.

The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee this afternoon held the first of three planned hearings to examine the opioid crisis and possible legislative solutions, which reviewed several bills pertaining to the Controlled Substances Act.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law held a hearing yesterday on CVS Health’s proposal to acquire health insurance company Aetna.

The Veterans Health Administration has launched a new web resource for community care providers as it works to improve the timeliness of payments and customer service.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker yesterday signed legislation authorizing the state to pursue federal approval to create a state-based reinsurance program to help stabilize premiums in the individual health insurance market.

Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) today introduced the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act 2.0, legislation that would increase funding authorization levels for CARA programs and implement additional policy reforms to combat the opioid crisis.

The AHA, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, American Society of Anesthesiologists, Institute for Safe Medication Practices, and American Society of Clinical Oncology today urged the Drug Enforcement Administration to temporarily adjust the aggregate production quotas for certain injectable opioid medications.

Medtronic has recalled certain implantable cardioverter defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators due to a defect in the manufacturing process.

Twenty states yesterday asked a federal court to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional because the Tax Cut and Jobs Act repealed the tax penalty enforcing the ACA’s individual mandate.

The Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and American Society for Microbiology yesterday released voluntary standardized protocols for duodenoscope surveillance sampling and culturing.

A hospital’s penalty status in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Hospital-Acquired Conditions Reduction Program is heavily influenced by chance.

Clinicians participating in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System may apply through March 23 to participate in a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services study on the burdens associated with reporting MIPS quality measures in 2018.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week published on the Hospice Compare website initial results from its patient experience of care survey.

Quality must be the top priority of any hospital or health system—there simply is no alternative. And it takes all of us working together.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has extended the Medicare deadline for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals to submit electronic clinical quality measure data and/or attest to meaningful use of electronic health records for calendar year 2017.

The flu hospitalization rate rose last week to 74.5 per 100,000 people, surpassing the rate at the end of the 2014-2015 flu season, another severe season when the H3N2 strain also predominated.

Govs. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Jon Kasich (R-OH), Bill Walker (I-AK), Tom Wolf (D-PA) and Brian Sandoval (R-NV) today issued a bipartisan plan to transform the nation’s health care system based on certain guiding principles and beliefs and specific strategies to reorient the system on value.

An estimated 28.9 million U.S. residents, or 9%, lacked health insurance when surveyed in the first nine months of 2017.

Our thoughts are with the families of the victims of this senseless tragedy. They are also with the dedicated people of Broward County’s hospitals.

Thirty-five state and regional hospital associations today urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to reverse a district court decision and grant a preliminary injunction to stop a nearly 30% Medicare payment reduction for many hospitals in the 340B Drug Pricing Program while the AHA and other hospital groups challenge the payment cut on appeal.