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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services June 13 approved state plan amendments allowing New York state to extend postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months after pregnancy for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollees under the American Rescue Plan Act.

Rural hospital leadership teams are encouraged to apply through Aug. 31 for this AHA award honoring outstanding leadership and responsiveness to community health needs through collaboration and innovation.

Anson (Texas) General Hospital CEO Ted Matthews and chief nursing officer Anna Doan discuss how the Rural Emergency Hospital designation has worked for the hospital so far and what the local patient population thinks about the change.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services estimates national health spending grew 4.3% in 2022, including just 0.8% growth in spending for hospital care, as increases in federal spending for public health outpaced slower growth for most major payers, the agency reported June 14 in Health Affairs.

As the House Energy and Commerce Committee works to reauthorize key programs within the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities (SUPPORT) Act of 2018, AHA June 14 encouraged its Subcommittee on Health to consider certain recommendations to improve federal payment policies, reduce regulatory burdens for behavioral health care and strengthen the behavioral health workforce.  

The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum are accepting applications through Aug. 7 for the 2023 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards, which recognize individuals and organizations for innovative approaches to improve patient safety and health care quality.

In a letter to governors, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra encouraged states to use all available options (https://www.medicaid.gov/resources-for-states/downloads/state-strategies-to-prevent-procedural-terminations.pdf) to streamline Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program redeterminations and prevent eligible enrollee’s from losing coverage due to procedural issues

At the start of Community Health Improvement Week, the AHA’s Nancy Myers and Chris DeRienzo discuss where community health and equity goals are headed and the driving forces behind the movement to align them.

Eligible clinicians may apply through July 20 at 7:30 p.m. ET for up to $100,000 in loan repayment in exchange for working up to three years in an approved outpatient or inpatient facility providing primary medical or dental care and/or mental and behavioral health services in a health professional shortage area or medically underserved area or population, the Health Resources and Services Administration recently announced.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals should reverse the Federal Trade Commission’s decision in Illumina Inc. v. FTC, “a paradigmatic example” of how the agency’s practices violate the Constitution’s due process clause, AHA said in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case. 

In a letter led by Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., a bipartisan group of over 30 senators urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to consider reevaluating the proposed payment update in the inpatient prospective payment system final rule, expressing concern that the proposed updates do not fully account for the current cost of care and will result in an overall payment reduction for hospitals in fiscal year 2024. 

June 12–18 is Community Health Improvement Week. This annual recognition week focuses on how people at hospitals, health systems, national organizations and community organizations are working together to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities and advance health equity.

There is now consensus about what health care leaders and practitioners have long known: The conditions in which people live are major drivers of health and well-being.

Healthy lifestyles and summertime fun are the themes of AHA’s new social media toolkit promoting COVID-19 vaccination and boosters.

Mackinac Straits Health System was in dire financial straits, operating on only a few days of cash reserves. President and CEO Karen Cheeseman explains how the health system turned things around thanks to strategic planning and critical investments from community partners.

In a new AHA case study, Inova Health System credits its multidisciplinary team Safety Always for Everyone for reducing the severity and frequency of injuries in its emergency departments, behavioral health units and across the system.

The FBI and Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency this week advised all organizations to implement certain recommendations to defend their networks from the latest tactics by the CLOP ransomware gang, which include using a SQL injection vulnerability in Progress Software's managed file transfer solution to steal data.

The man supporting Ukraine through donations of ambulances and other vehicles is preparing his next delivery of front-line medical equipment to the war-torn nation. Now, Chris Manson of OSF HealthCare is seeking donations from hospitals and health systems to bolster his relief efforts.

As urged by the AHA, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will make a one-time adjustment to the 96-hour average annual patient length-of-stay requirement for critical access hospitals in the Medicare program to account for its blanket waiver of the requirement during the COVID-19 public health emergency, the agency announced today.

AHA today urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to make significant revisions to some of its proposed fiscal year 2024 policies for long-term care hospitals, saying the proposed payment reductions would harm “one of Medicare’s most severely ill patient populations and the entire health care field.”