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The Food and Drug Administration yesterday announced a firmware update to reduce the risk of rapid battery depletion and address cybersecurity vulnerabilities in certain Abbott devices that provide pacing for slow heart rhythms and electrical shock or pacing to stop dangerously fast heart rhythms.

Clinicians participating in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System may apply through April 30 to participate in a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services study on the burdens associated with reporting MIPS quality measures in 2018.

The AHA's Health Research & Educational Trust and Institute for Diversity and Health Equity have launched the 2018 Population Health, Equity and Diversity Survey.

Leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today introduced bipartisan legislation to address the opioid crisis, which the committee will mark up on April 24.

The Food and Drug Administration today released a plan to improve medical device safety.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine and the American Medical Association yesterday released an issue brief on an alternative payment model for medication-assisted therapy, and seek physician practices and insurers interested in pilot testing the model for patients with opioid use disorder.

Current state proposals to require certain Medicaid beneficiaries to participate in work, training or other “community engagement” activity to remain eligible for coverage could affect more than 1.7 million enrollees and nearly $8 billion in program expenditures.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to continue periodic post-payment reviews and provider education to ensure Medicare claims for telehealth services meet program requirements, and to ensure Medicare contractors implement all planned claims edits.

AHA Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Jay Bhatt, D.O., yesterday participated in a panel on building a sustainable healthy community as part of the National Minority Quality Forum’s annual conference on health disparities.

The Drug Enforcement Administration continues to adjust manufacturers’ quotas for injectable opioid pain medications.

Coastal Meds LLC, which compounds drugs as an outsourcing facility, has voluntarily recalled all of its products marketed as sterile due to visible particles in some of the drug vials for injection.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released Spanish versions of its most popular materials to educate health care

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives recently launched the 2018 Most Wired Survey, which hospitals can complete through May 31.

AHA is asking hospitals and health systems to submit photos by May 1 showing their commitment to combating violence.

By helping our communities better understand advance directives and health care decision-making at the end of life, we can demystify the topic and increase the number of people who have a plan in place. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is appealing a federal court decision that barred the agency from enforcing in Missouri a 2017 final rule and earlier guidance.

“The ‘H’ in the future is going to look different,” Pollack said at the panel, which was part of the University of Miami School of Business Administration’s conference on “The Business of Health Care: What’s Next?."

The New Jersey legislature yesterday passed legislation to increase transparency in out-of-network health care services and create an arbitration system to resolve related billing disputes, sending it to the governor for his signature.

Delaware hospitals contributed almost $348.9 million in community benefits to the state in fiscal year 2016, according to a new report by the Delaware Healthcare Association.

Hospitals and health systems may apply through May 7 for the AHA Equity of Care Award.