HHS Drops Current 340B Rebate Model Program
After the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) dropped its appeal of the U.S. District Court of Maine’s preliminary injunction of the 340B Rebate Model Pilot (Rebate Pilot) in the lawsuit against it by the American Hospital Association, Maine Hospital Association, and four health systems alleging it violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), it says it will abandon the current Rebate Pilot and potentially restart the administrative process for such a program.  

In a joint motion of the parties, HHS explained it has “considered the documents that would comprise the full administrative record in this matter,” and it is does not believe that the “full administrative record would change the outcome of this litigation.” HHS concludes that further litigation would not be “fruitful.” The motion requests the court vacate the Rebate Pilot and send it issue back to HHS.  

In the motion, HHS agrees that if it were to begin a new 340B rebate program, it would issue a new notice, solicit comments, and solicit new pharmaceutical manufacturer applications. HHS further agrees that any effective date for a new 340B rebate program would begin no earlier than 90 days following the public announcement of any approval of pharmaceutical manufacturer applications.  

IHA will continue to track and disseminate developments related to any HHS actions related to a revised Rebate Pilot.

Webinar March 5: Advancing Quality and Safety with New Analytic Platforms 
IHA is partnering with Dexur to offer two complimentary programs to member hospitals designed to provide advanced analytics, statewide benchmarking, and unified workflows that proactively improve patient safety and reduce organizational risk. The programs include an Infection Prevention Analytics, Benchmarks and Collaboration Platform and a Risk and Incident Management Platform.

The Infection Prevention Analytics, Benchmarks and Collaboration Platform delivers deep, measure-specific insights across infection categories—including central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, surgical site infections, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridioides difficile—by combining hospital-submitted National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) data with Dexur’s advanced analytics engine. Additional information about the infection prevention platform can be found by clicking here.

This Risk and Incident Management Platform helps hospitals shift from reactive incident reporting to predictive, proactive risk management by integrating prediction, detection, reporting and resolution into one seamless system. Additional information about the Risk And Incident Management Platform can be found by clicking here. 

Those interested in learning more about the platforms can join us on March 5 at noon CT for a one-hour webinar, “Advancing Quality & Safety: A First Look at Dexur’s Infection Prevention and Risk Management Analytic Platforms.” Experts from Dexur will:

• Highlight key benefits of the infection prevention and risk and incident management platforms.

• Provide a live demonstration of both programs.

• Review steps your hospital can take to enroll in one or both available platforms. 

Click here to register for the complimentary webinar. The program is open to all hospitals, and you are encouraged to share the registration information with colleagues responsible for the implementation of infection prevention and risk management related initiatives. Please direct questions to QualityPatientSafety@team-iha.org.

FBI Launches Campaign to Protect Hospitals, Critical Infrastructure
Last week, the FBI launched Operation Winter SHIELD (Securing Homeland Infrastructure by Enhancing Layered Defense), a two-month campaign emphasizing 10 actions organizations can use to protect against cyberattacks. These recommendations were developed with domestic and international partners and draw on the most common methodologies threat actors are using effectively, to determine what cyber defensive measures are the most effective at reducing cyber risk and increasing resiliency and recovery. 

Recommendations include adopting phish-resistant authentication; implementing a risk-based vulnerability management program; tracking and retiring end-of-life technology on a defined schedule; managing third-party risk; protecting security logs; maintaining offline immutable backups; identifying and protecting internet-facing systems and services; strengthening email authentication and malicious content protections; reducing administrator privileges; and exercising your incident response plan with all stakeholders. 

IDPH Endorses Immunization Schedule from American Academy of Pediatrics
The Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) announced yesterday it will adopt the 2026 child and adolescent immunization schedule recently issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The announcement was informed by the Illinois Immunization Advisory Committee (IL-IAC)’s recommendations. IDPH noted the newly endorsed AAP childhood schedule remains unchanged from what IDPH has previously recommended, and said, “the endorsement aims to provide clarity and consistency to Illinois residents and health care providers.”

New AHRQ Resource Helps Identify Potentially Missed Diagnoses
The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released a new diagnostic excellence resource to help health systems, researchers, and other users identify potential missed opportunities for diagnosis at a population level. The Symptom-Disease Pair Analysis (SPADE) Tool provides a standardized way to examine diagnostic processes using routinely available claims data. The initial release focuses on stroke and heart attack, allowing users to estimate how often hospital admissions for these conditions occur shortly after emergency department visits for related symptoms, or how often such admissions were preceded by those visits. The tool does not require access to electronic health records and includes clear specifications and user guidance to support implementation. It can also be adapted to other symptom-disease pairs for local quality improvement and research. The SPADE resource is now available on the AHRQ Quality Indicators website.