The American Hospital Association (AHA) has released its strategic plan for the next three years, a time which will be filled “opportunities and challenges” that are “amplified in light of a new presidential administration and shifts in legislative activity.”

Almost 700 rural hospitals have been deemed at risk of closing thanks to financial struggles. As Kaiser Health News reports, the loss of expanded Medicaid could push those facilities over the edge. 

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the Veterans Affairs Department—and the largest integrated healthcare system in the U.S.—is the department’s current top health official, David Shulkin, MD.

While all hospitals have reduced readmissions of skilled nursing facility (SNF) patients, those affiliated with accountable care organizations (ACOs) did so more quickly, according to a study published in the January 2017 issue of Health Affairs. 

Cesarean deliveries make up for 32 percent of the four million annual births in the U.S., but do these procedures have negative side effects when chosen over vaginal births? A review conducted by the University of Alabama and published in Value in Health found women who have a trial of labor after cesarean (TOLAC) or an elective repeat cesarean delivery (ERCD) face higher rates of morbidity.

Richard Miller, president and CEO of Marlton, New Jersey-based nonprofit Virtua, will be retiring at the end of 2017 after 21 years running the four-hospital system. 

The Joint Commission, working with CMS, has released a list of clarifying recommendations in response to the use of text messaging for patient care orders.

In his first press conference since July 2016, President-elect Donald Trump confirmed he favored an “essentially simultaneous” repeal-and-replace of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and said his nominee to take over HHS, U.S. Rep. Tom Price, MD, R-Georgia, will be introducing details of the plan after he’s confirmed.