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The latest stories from AHA Today.
A National Institutes of Health advisory group yesterday issued recommendations for creating and managing a national network of research volunteers for the president鈥檚 Precision Medicine Initiative. Participants would share their health data and a biological specimen for research to鈥
The Food and Drug Administration today issued safety recommendations for health care facilities that reprocess flexible bronchoscopes. The agency said facilities and staff should strictly adhere to the manufacturer鈥檚 reprocessing instructions, and immediately remove from service any鈥
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services encourages hospitals to review their results from its 鈥渄ry run鈥 test of a new claims-based outcome measure for the inpatient quality reporting program in fiscal year 2018. Hospital-specific reports on the measure, 鈥渆xcess days in鈥
An estimated 90% of hospital workers report receiving a flu vaccine for the 2014-15 flu season, about the same as in 2013-14, according to a survey released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Coverage for health care workers in all settings was 77%, up from 75% in 2012-13鈥
The Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network, a forum initiated by Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell in March to advance health care payment models that promote quality and value, will host a summit on alternative payment models Oct. 26 in Arlington, VA.鈥
An AHASTAT blog post today looks at the likely impact of the proposed Aetna-Humana merger on seniors in Medicare Advantage. 鈥淜eeping Medicare Advantage affordable for seniors depends on robust competition among health plans,鈥 writes Melinda Hatton, AHA senior vice president and general鈥
An estimated 33 million U.S. residents lacked health insurance in 2014, a decline of 2.9 percentage points or 8.8 million people, the Census Bureau reported today. That鈥檚 the largest percentage-point decline since 2008. Several Affordable Care Act provisions took effect in 2014,鈥
The federal government should 鈥渋mmediately adopt鈥 proposed changes to Stage 2 meaningful use requirements for the Medicare & Medicaid Electronic Health Records Incentive Programs and delay finalizing a rule for Stage 3 requirements until 2017, Senate Health, Education, Labor and鈥
The AHA鈥檚 Physician Leadership Forum today issued a toolkit to help hospital leaders, clinicians and patients align intensive care unit treatment with patient priorities in the context of progressive disease.
The AHA yesterday urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to strategically build its star rating system for overall hospital-level quality rather than trying to retrofit existing Hospital Compare measures when they were not chosen with this goal in mind.