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States and health care providers may use regulatory flexibilities available during the COVID-19 public health emergency to help respond to non-COVID-19 illnesses straining hospital and health care systems, such as flu and Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told governors Dec. 2.

When I began my term as AHA board chair in January 2022, the health care field was evolving. Hospitals and health systems were focusing on the immediate needs of responding to the pandemic while also prioritizing vital work on long-term strategies to advance health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today recommended the Moderna and Pfizer bivalent COVID-19 vaccines in children as young as 6 months old.

In a study of men under age 50 who were eligible to receive the JYNNEOS vaccine to prevent monkeypox (mpox) during the U.S. outbreak this year, unvaccinated men were 10 times more likely to get the virus than men who received the two-dose vaccine, and seven times more likely to get it than men who received only one vaccine dose.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality seeks input on how the Department of Health and Human Services can most effectively advance patient and health care workforce safety through a National Healthcare System Action Alliance to Advance Patient Safety, which the agency plans to launch next year.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission today discussed draft payment update recommendations for 2024, which the commission will vote on in January.

Challenges. Resilience. Innovation. Opportunities.

The Food and Drug Administration today authorized the Moderna and Pfizer bivalent COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use in children as young as 6 months old. Specifically, the agency authorized the Moderna vaccine as a single booster dose for children aged 6 months through 5 at least two months after primary vaccination, and the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 6 months through 4 who have not yet received the third primary series dose.

Formed in 2021, the AdventHealth Orchestra “has been a wonderful experience as well as an effective way to address staff burnout and promote resilience and mental health in the workplace,” writes Vincent Hsu, M.D., an infectious diseases and preventive medicine physician at AdventHealth Orlando, who plays in the orchestra with his wife and other colleagues.

A new report from AHA’s Strengthening the Health Care Workforce series offers frameworks and insights to help health care leaders identify and implement digital workforce solutions.

The AHA today released its 2023 Environmental Scan, which provides key data and insights on the current health care landscape and can help organizations explore the pandemic’s ramifications on the health care field for the upcoming year and beyond.

Members of Congress this week urged House and Senate leaders to include in the upcoming omnibus appropriations package AHA-supported legislation to extend for three years the Conrad State 30 program, which allows states to request J-1 visa waivers for foreign-born physicians who have completed a U.S. residency training program to work in federally designated shortage and underserved areas.

The AdventHealth Orchestra has been a wonderful experience as well as an effective way to address staff burnout and promote resilience and mental health in the workplace.

The AHA’s “Advancing Health” podcast this week reached 100,000 plays in 2022, establishing itself as among the most popular podcasts produced today addressing the issues facing hospitals, health systems and the wider health field in general. 

Johnson & Johnson this month launched a new television and digital campaign celebrating nurses and their contributions to health care.

Nearly 5.5 million people selected a 2023 health plan through the federally facilitated and state-based marketplaces Nov. 1 through Dec. 3, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported today.

On Dec. 15, the Department of Health and Human Services will stop collecting hospitals’ COVID-19 data through the TeleTracking portal and begin collecting the data through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services tonight released a proposed rule that would require Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and federally-facilitated Marketplace health plans to streamline processes related to prior authorization.

The EMS for Children Information and Improvement Center invites hospital and freestanding emergency department teams to participate in a 10-month pediatric suicide prevention collaborative beginning in February.

U.S. clinicians should consider cholera in patients with acute diarrhea returning from countries with cholera transmission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an advisory yesterday, citing eight cases this year in travelers returning to the United States.