Senator Durbin: Hospitals’ stories needed to drive meaningful change hnesich_drupal Apr 16, 2024 - 02:05 PM As hospital leaders prepared to meet with their lawmakers on April 16 following the conclusion of the AHA's 2024 Annual Membership Meeting, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urged hospitals to speak up about the challenges and realities they face, particularly as they contend with crippling workforce shortages nationwide. “People don't want to hear a speech, they love to hear a story — and you’ve got plenty of them,” Durbin said. “So, when it comes to the financial situations you’re facing, w ..read more

Senator Durbin: Hospitals’ stories needed to drive meaningful change hnesich_drupal Apr 16, 2024 - 02:05 PM As hospital leaders prepared to meet with their lawmakers on April 16 following the conclusion of the AHA's 2024 Annual Membership Meeting, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urged hospitals to speak up about the challenges and realities they face, particularly as they contend with crippling workforce shortages nationwide. “People don't want to hear a speech, they love to hear a story — and you’ve got plenty of them,” Durbin said. “So, when it comes to the financial situations you’re facing, w ..read more

Health care leaders examine prior authorization policies hnesich_drupal Apr 16, 2024 - 02:11 PM Challenging prior authorization policy requirements were addressed in an AHA Annual Membership Meeting panel discussion moderated by Marilyn Werber Serafini, executive director for the Health Program at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Shikha Jain, M.D., Department of Hematology & Oncology, UI Health, who appeared in a recent New York Times video about prior authorization, said some commercial insurance practices, including prior authorization, lead to care delays, administrative burdens on hosp ..read more

Health care leaders discuss ways to effectively engage legislators hnesich_drupal Apr 16, 2024 - 02:10 PM It's always important to bring the issue back to the patient, said Sarah Lechner, senior vice president and chief of external affairs for Hackensack Meridian Health, during a Q&A about building relationships with elected officials when advocating for hospitals and health systems at AHA's 2024 Annual Meeting April 14-16. Lechner, along with Jeremy Nordquist, president of the Nebraska Hospital Association, said early engagement, hosting site visits, crafting tailored messages with spec ..read more

HHS Deputy Secretary Palm discusses Change Healthcare attack and future of cybersecurity hnesich_drupal Apr 16, 2024 - 02:09 PM Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm addressed AHA Annual Membership Meeting attendees about the Administration’s work to improve access to care and increase the number of people with health insurance, as well as the Change Healthcare cyberattack and what cybersecurity looks like in the future. “We’ve been in a live fire exercise recently and are learning lessons that inform the ways we will move forward,” she said. “These attacks ha ..read more

Reps. Wenstrup, Bucshon and Kildee talk current state of Congress, look back on congressional careers hnesich_drupal Apr 16, 2024 - 02:07 PM Three retiring members of Congress — Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, Larry Bucshon, R-Ind., and Dan Kildee, D-Mich. — engaged in a genial conversation that covered the current state of Congress, as well as what they view as the major issues and possible solutions facing health care. Bucshon addressed the problems of high costs not only in health care, but in health care education and how it leads to some communities being underserved, particularly in the field ..read more

Senator Thune touts support for telehealth, urges solution-oriented advocacy  hnesich_drupal Apr 16, 2024 - 02:06 PM Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., April 16 updated AHA members on progress to extend telehealth waivers, offering hope that a solution will arise in end-of-year legislation that Congress will attempt to pass. “I think, if nothing else, what the pandemic showed us was what an important role telehealth can play in providing access and particularly to rural populations, which we have plenty of in South Dakota,” Thune said, noting that there is bipartisan interest in getting teleheal ..read more

NASEM releases evidence review on COVID-19 vaccine safety hnesich_drupal Apr 16, 2024 - 02:04 PM The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines can cause myocarditis, but do not appear to cause infertility, Guillain-Barré syndrome, Bell’s palsy, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) or heart attack, according to a new National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report examining whether COVID-19 vaccines can cause certain harms. The Janssen COVID-19 vaccine may cause TTS and Guillain-Barré syndrome, the study committee found, although there are a limited number of published ..read more

Administration releases strategy to protect against emerging global health threats hnesich_drupal Apr 16, 2024 - 02:03 PM The White House April 16 released a strategy to guide the federal government in protecting the nation from infectious disease threats by working with other nations and stakeholders. The Administration said the Global Health Security Strategy builds on progress made since 2019 and lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic to address goals in the 2022 National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan and the Global Health Security and International Pandemic Prevention, Prepared ..read more

AHA shares comments with Congress for hearing on strengthening ERISA hnesich_drupal Apr 16, 2024 - 02:02 PM In a statement submitted April 16 to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions for a hearing on ways to strengthen the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, AHA urged Congress to prevent commercial insurer practices that harm patients and small providers, such as steering patients to their own health care providers or plans and circumventing medical loss ratio requirements; legislation that would complicate providers ..read more