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Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar directed the department’s operating divisions and offices to review and revise their procedures related to civil enforcement actions and adjudications “to ensure that they promote fairness and transparency.”

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized additional provisions for the Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug programs beginning in 2022.

As urged by the AHA, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services officially withdrew a proposed rule intended to increase oversight and transparency in Medicaid supplemental payment programs, including Disproportionate Share Hospital payments, and how states finance these programs.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a final rule that implements some of the standards governing health insurance issuers and the Health Insurance Marketplaces (or “exchanges”) for 2022.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a final rule that seeks to streamline prior authorization processes implemented by health plans serving the Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program and federal Health Insurance Marketplace.

President-elect Biden is planning to host a memorial to remember and honor the lives lost to COVID-19 on Tuesday, Jan. 19 — the night before he is inaugurated president.

As COVID-19 surges continue, lessons learned by health systems large and small reveal the importance of teamwork, communication, flexibility, preparation and supporting the physical and mental health of all staff.

The Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights announced collaborative efforts with the state of North Carolina, the North Texas Mass Critical Care Guidelines Task Force, the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, and the Indian Health Service in updating each entity’s crisis standards of care to provide equitable health care to individuals with disabilities and the elderly.

President-elect Joe Biden named former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler, M.D., as Chief Science Officer of COVID Response, a role that will assume the responsibilities of the current head of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration effort focused on the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Modeling data suggest that the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to increase the U.S. pandemic trajectory in the coming months, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced that it is delaying the reporting deadline for the Provider Relief Fund program.

President-elect Biden unveiled plans for a roughly $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, which includes a number of provisions that affect hospitals and health systems. Biden hopes that Congress will consider the legislation soon after he is inaugurated next week.

Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Since it became a federal holiday in 1983, MLK Day has become widely celebrated as a day of public service for individuals, communities and organizations.

Richard Beigi, M.D., president of UPMC Magee Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh and professor of reproductive sciences at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, will serve as 2021 chair of the AHA Maternal and Child Health Council.

President Trump signed into law AHA-supported legislation that repeals the McCarran-Ferguson antitrust exemption available to commercial health insurers for anticompetitive conduct.

Starting by July 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will reprocess calendar year 2019 claims for hospital outpatient clinic visit services provided in off-campus provider-based departments excepted under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 to pay them at 70% of the outpatient prospective payment system rate, the same rate as non-excepted departments, the agency announced.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended that Congress provide a 2% market-basket update for the hospital inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems in fiscal year 2022.

AHA, through the 100 Million Mask Challenge, continues to work with novel manufacturers and suppliers to support hospitals’ and health systems’ PPE needs.

The hospital-at-home model continues to emerge as a promising approach to improve value for some patients, enabling the receipt of acute-level care in their homes.

Even as hospitals and health systems continue to address COVID-19 and its many challenges, they are looking for lessons learned and opportunities for the future.