News

America’s health care workers are a special group of people.

he Kansas Hospital Association has selected as its next president and CEO Chad Austin, who currently serves as executive vice president and will assume the new role in September.

Centene Corporation has completed its acquisition of WellCare Health Plans.

The Government Accountability Office said in a report that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should determine the extent to which state Medicaid programs comply with federal requirements to cover medication-assisted treatment in all formats, and take actions as appropriate to ensure compliance.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a Jan. 29 Listening Session to gather feedback to improve processes and interactions with Medicare administrative contractors related to operations, technology, business functions, beneficiary quality of care and customer service experience.

Health care providers used Z codes to document social determinants of health for 467,136 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries in 2017, according to a new report by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced plans to combine and standardize its quality compare tools for hospitals, long-term care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, nursing homes, physicians, home health, hospice and dialysis providers so users can access the same information through a single point of entry and simplified navigation.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a second person in the U.S. tested positive for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

AHA released its 2020 Environmental Scan which offers an overview of the trends, statistics and economic forecasts likely to affect patients and providers at every level of care.

The World Health Organization said it will not declare a public health emergency of international concern at this time in regards to the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which has infected hundreds and killed at least 17 people.

The FDA alerted health care providers to cybersecurity vulnerabilities in certain GE Healthcare clinical information central stations and telemetry servers that may allow an attacker to remotely take control of these medical devices and silence, generate and interfere with alarms for connected patient monitors.

Cardinal Health has created a webpage to keep customers informed about its Jan. 21 recall of certain surgical gowns because it could not assure their sterility.

The AHA and five other national hospital groups filed a friend-of-the court brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to affirm a district court decision blocking the Department of Homeland Security’s public charge rule from taking effect while legal challenges to the rule proceed.

During its Rural Health Care Leadership Conference Feb. 2-5 in Phoenix, the AHA will present its 2019 Rural Hospital Leadership Award to Cody (Wyo.) Regional Health.

Raymond Waller, director/administrator at Ascension Brighton (Mich.) Center for Recovery, will chair the AHA's Behavioral Health Council in 2020, and Robert Trestman, M.D., chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, Va., will serve as chair-elect.

World Health Organization officials met in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the coronavirus – originally found in Wuhan, China – which has killed 17 people.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized a decision to cover acupuncture for Medicare patients with chronic low back pain.

More than 15% of adults in every U.S. state and territory are physically inactive, ranging from 17.3% in Colorado to 47.7% in Puerto Rico, according to state maps released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Patrice Weiss, M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer for Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, Va., will chair the AHA’s Committee on Clinical Leadership in 2020.

Maryjane Wurth, AHA executive vice president and chief operating officer, shares strategies and insights gleaned from last week’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.