Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Coronavirus Update for Friday, August 14
The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Friday, August 14. Provider Relief Fund HHS announced that it will distribute $1.4 billion in CARES Act Provider Relief Fund grants to nearly 80 free-standing children’s hospitals. Qualifying children’s hospitals must be either an exempt hospital under CMS’s Medicare inpatient prospective payment system or be a HRSA-defined Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education facility. Eligible hospitals will receive 2.5 percent of their net revenue from patient care. Qualifying free-standing children’s hospitals will begin receiving grants [...]
Health Care Workers Inadequately Protected by March Legislation
Many health care workers sickened by COVID-19 are not receiving the paid sick leave anticipated by a federal law passed in March, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General. Under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, new protections were to be established to ensure that health care workers and others had access to additional paid sick leave for COVID-19-related illnesses. According to the OIG, however, the Labor Department’s stated exemptions to the March law are overly broad, leaving as many as [...]
Coronavirus Update for Tuesday, August 11
The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 11. Provider Relief Fund Eligible providers may now apply for Provider Relief Fund phase 2 general distributions. These are providers that are being given another opportunity to receive Provider Relief Fund payments after missing the June 3, 2020 deadline to apply for funding equal to two percent of their total patient care revenue from the $20 billion portion of the $50 billion phase 1 general distribution; this group also includes Medicaid, Children's [...]
OIG Cites Medicare, Medicaid Among Top Unimplemented Recommendations
CMS has failed to implement many of the policy changes recommended to it by HHS’s Office of the Inspector General, according to a new OIG report. Every year the Department of Health and Human Services’ OIG offers recommendations for policy changes designed to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse in HHS programs. This week, the OIG published “OIG’s Top Unimplemented Recommendations: Solutions to Reduce Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in HHS Programs.” Among the top 25 unimplemented recommendations to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are 14 involving Medicare and Medicaid. [...]
Coronavirus Update for Friday, August 7
The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Friday, August 7. White House: Executive Order The White House issued an executive order directing the Department of Health and Human Services to extend permanently some of the Medicare telehealth waivers initiated during the COVID-19 public health emergency; to simplify Medicare billing codes and propose a payment model to improve health care in rural areas; and to encourage the Department of Agriculture and Federal Communications Commission to invest in technology that enhances access to [...]