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Coronavirus update for Thursday, April 30 as of 4:00 p.m. Major New Regulation From CMS CMS this afternoon published a 279-page interim final rule with comment period covering Medicare and Medicaid, the Basic Health Program, and additional policy and regulatory revisions in response to the COVID-19 emergency and delaying certain reporting requirements for the skilled nursing facility quality reporting program.  The CMS news release announcing the policy changes describes them as a “…round of sweeping regulatory waivers and rule changes to deliver expanded care to the nation’s seniors and provide flexibility to the healthcare system as America reopens.  These changes [...]

Coronavirus update for Thursday, April 29 as of 3:30 p.m. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS has posted a letter to clinicians participating in its Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) explaining how participating in a clinical trial and reporting their findings to a clinical data repository or registry may earn them credit in the 2020 performance period. CMS has updated its FAQ on Medicare fee-for-service billing. The update features a new question on the MIPS program. CMS has issued a transmittal on the quarterly update of the long-term-care hospital (LTCH) prospective payments system fiscal year 2020 pricer to reflect [...]

Coronavirus update for Tuesday, April 28 as of 4:00 p.m. White House The Trump administration has released two new documents to support its plan for reopening the country and its economy:  a testing overview and an accompanying testing blueprint. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The CDC has updated its COVID-19 guidance for different types of clinical facilities. Food and Drug Administration After questions arose about its April 18 emergency use authorization (EUA) about the uses of non-surgical face masks, the FDA has re-issued that EUA to manufacturers of face masks, health care personnel, hospital purchasing departments, distributors, and other [...]

Coronavirus update for April 20, 2020. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services  CMS has issued guidance on providing non-essential non-COVID-19 care to patients without symptoms of COVID-19 in regions with low and stable incidence of COVID-19. It views this guidance as part of phase one of the administration’s plan to reopen the U.S. economy.  See CMS’s news release on this guidance here and the guidance itself here.  Under this guidance, individual states will determine for themselves when it is appropriate to begin the “reopening” process.  As a practical matter, only Oklahoma, Texas, and Alaska, to our knowledge, have identified concrete [...]

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 4:00 p.m. on Friday, April 17. The White House President Trump has unveiled “Guidelines for Opening Up America Again,” a three-phase approach to reopening the economy.  Find that plan here. President Trump has signed a memorandum authorizing the use of the National Guard by governors in five more states to help with their response to the COVID-19 emergency, with the cost of National Guard assistance to be assumed 100 percent by the federal government.  The five states are Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Vermont.   Centers [...]