News Briefs
FDA Guidelines Require TV Drug Ads to Be Simpler, More Direct
Those ever-present TV drug ads showing patients hiking, biking, or enjoying a day at the beach could soon have a different look: New rules require drugmakers to be clearer and more direct when explaining their medications' risks and side effects. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration spent more than 15 years crafting the guidelines, which are designed to do away with industry practices that downplay or distract viewers from risk information.
(Source: My Journal Courier, 2024-11-24)
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Senior Housing Occupancy Rates Expected to Grow to 88% in 2025
The Urban Land Institute forecasts that senior housing will perform better than the long-term averages for occupancy rates in 2026. In the shorter term, occupancy rates, forecast at 87 percent for 2024, are expected to grow to 88 percent in 2025 and 88.5 percent in 2026.
(Source: McKnight's Senior Living, 2024-11-25)
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New Hospice Regulations Aim to Improve Quality, Combat Fraud
The past year has seen a slew of regulatory developments aimed at improving quality and combatting fraud in the hospice industry. The drive by regulators and members of Congress to strengthen oversight is fueled by two main factors.
(Source: Hospice News, 2024-11-27)
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Number of Hospitals Complying with Price Transparency Declined
The percentage of hospitals in full compliance with federal price transparency rules fell from February to November, from 34.5 percent to 21.1 percent, according to a new report from the watchdog group Patient Rights Advocate. The backslide in compliance is due to weak federal oversight, which has allowed hospitals to post prices that aren't clearly associated with payers and not in required formats, the PRA said.
(Source: Healthcare Dive, 2024-11-22)
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FDA Group Meets on Regulation of Generative AI - Enabled Devices
A newly assembled FDA advisory committee recommended several approaches to how the agency should handle regulation of generative artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled medical devices during a two-day meeting. The Digital Health Advisory Committee held its first meeting to offer guidance to the FDA on a slew of questions related to the development, evaluation, implementation, and continued monitoring of AI-enabled medical devices.
(Source: MedPage Today, 2024-11-22)
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OIG Finds HIPAA Audits Not Improving Cybersecurity
The Office for Civil Rights, which oversees HIPAA enforcement, should improve its program for auditing compliance with the privacy and security law, according to a report published by the HHS' Office of Inspector General. Though the OCR fulfilled its requirements to conduct periodic HIPAA audits, the program was too narrow in scope to effectively assess organizations' protections for health data and reduce risks, according to the OIG.
(Source: Healthcare Dive, 2024-11-26)
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Lawmakers Introduce Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act
A quartet of U.S. Senators from both sides of the aisle have introduced new legislation aimed at helping healthcare organizations weather the onslaught of ransomware and other cyberattacks. The new bill, The Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act of 2024, would offer grants to healthcare organizations to help them shore up their ability to prevent and respond to cyberattacks, in addition to funding training to help foster cybersecurity best practices.
(Source: Healthcare IT News, 2024-11-27)
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Guidelines Aim to Help Healthcare Organizations Safely Adopt AI
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly prevalent in healthcare, organizations and clinicians must adopt measures to ensure its safe implementation in real-world settings, according to Dean Sittig, PhD, of UTHealth Houston, and Hardeep Singh, MD, MPH, of Baylor College of Medicine. They authored guidelines that offer a pragmatic approach to managing AI systems in clinical practice.
(Source: Medical Economics, 2024-11-27)
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Healthcare Leaders Partnering to Build Micro-Hospitals
With capital expenses on a very short leash and consumers looking for a more connected approach to care, healthcare leaders are partnering to build micro-, mini- or neighborhood hospitals. They're fully accredited and smaller in size, covering about 15,000 to 60,000 square feet, with 8-30 inpatient beds for short stays, and 24/7 ED capabilities.
(Source: HealthLeaders Media, 2024-11-22)
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Nonprofits Concerned as End of Hospital-at-Home Program Nears
Not-for-profit hospitals and health systems are slowly recovering from their worst year financially in 2022, but that nascent financial recovery is now under threat if federal lawmakers don't act to extend the Acute Hospital Care at Home program as well as certain features of telehealth policy, according to a new report from Fitch Ratings. The Acute Hospital Care at Home (hospitals at home) and certain Medicare telehealth services were extended under the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act and will now expire Dec. 31, 2024, unless Congress acts to renew the programs.
(Source: FierceHealthcare, 2024-11-21)
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