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Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar yesterday declared a public health emergency in Florida as Hurricane Michael approaches, and waived or modified certain Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program requirements to give health care providers and suppliers greater flexibility to meet emergency health needs.

The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division today announced a settlement that would allow CVS Health and Aetna to proceed with their proposed merger if Aetna divests its Medicare Part D prescription drug plans to WellCare.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will host a one-hour webinar on Oct. 15, 18, 24 and 26 to review and answer questions about planned updates to the National Response Framework to incorporate learnings from the 2017 hurricane and wildfire season.

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday released a series of guidance documents intended to help manufacturers develop generic transdermal and topical delivery systems, products that deliver a drug through a patient’s skin.

The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Workplace Partnership for Life 2019 Hospital Organ Donation Campaign began Oct. 1 and runs through April 2019.

A total of 832 acute care hospitals and 715 physician group practices are participating in Medicare’s Bundled Payments for Care Improvement – Advanced model, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced today.

Participating today in a panel discussion in Washington, D.C., on bundled payment, AHA Chief Medical Officer Jay Bhatt, D.O., said hospitals and health systems participating in bundled payment models need timely data to make evidence-based decisions on changes to care delivery and cooperation across care settings to succeed.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has activated its National Response Coordination Center in Washington, D.C., and Regional Response Coordination Center in Atlanta in preparation for Hurricane Michael, which is expected to make landfall as a major hurricane within the next 24 hours along the Florida coastline

The American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration, an AHA professional membership group, today announced its new board members and officers for 2019.

The AHA recently presented 2018 Hospital Awards for Volunteer Excellence to four extraordinary hospital volunteer programs for their positive impact on patients, hospitals, health systems and communities.

U.S. News and World Report will host a Twitter chat on building healthy communities at 1:30 p.m. ET Oct. 10.

The week also includes National Depression Screening Day, dedicated to raising awareness and screening people for depression and related mood and anxiety disorders.

The InfraGard Cyber Health Working Group, a partnership between the FBI and information technology professionals in the health sector, will host a conference Oct. 25-26 in Charlotte, N.C.

“If we can’t do something for our own neighbors, what can we do across town or in another city?”

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission today reviewed its upcoming research on payment for a defined episode of post-acute care, which augments its prior development of a common prospective payment system for home health agencies, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and long-term care hospitals mandated by Congress.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services yesterday posted a summary of validation survey results for hospitals in fiscal years 2014-2016, and survey reports for hospitals with a compliance deficiency in the past six months.

Only 29 percent of health plans in the individual market included out-of-network coverage in 2018, down from 58 percent in 2015.

Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.23 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted 5,202,900 people.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently made several proposals that could reduce access to care in the community, particularly for vulnerable patients. We’ve urged CMS to withdraw these proposals for several reasons.

The AHA and Federation of American Hospitals today urged the National Labor Relations Board to consider hospital electronic communication systems as a virtual “patient care area,” and to reestablish a previous NLRB standard that would lawfully permit hospital employers to limit employees’ use of these systems.