COVID-19

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal governments as of 2:45 p.m. on Friday, December 4. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS has updated its FAQs on Medicare fee-for-service billing with 14 new questions that address administration and billing for monoclonal antibody therapy.  The new questions can be found on pages 33-34, p. 34, pp. 120-121, p. 121, pp. 121-124, pp. 124-125, p. 125 (four questions), p. 126, pp. 126-127, p. 127, and pp. 127-128. CMS covers much the same ground in an updated version of its document “Medicare Monoclonal Antibody COVID-19 Infusion Program Instruction.” CMS [...]

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:45 p.m. on Wednesday, December 2. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS has announced the introduction of two new Medicare condition codes that will take effect for claims received on or after February 1, 2021:  one to enable providers to report when a service is provided as part of Expanded Access approval and another to enable providers to report when the service is provided as part of an Emergency Use Authorization.  Find an article about the new codes here in MLN Matters, CMS’s online publication. CMS [...]

The development of new therapeutics in recent months has not yet translated into a reduced death rate for patients with COVID-19. In the spring the death rate was five to six percent, a rate attributed to limited testing.  Since testing became more widely available during the summer, however, the death rate has fallen to approximately 1.7 percent but has remained at that level despite the introduction of new ways to treat COVID-19. Learn more about the new treatments, their impact on care, and the prospects for their eventual impact on COVID-19 death rates in the Washington Post article “Coronavirus survival [...]

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, November 12. Department of Health and Human Services HHS is hosting a on webinar Friday, November 13 at 1:00 p.m. (eastern) to present updated guidance for hospital data reporting requirements. Go here to register.  Also available are a slide deck that will be presented by the subject matter experts during the webinar and a Q&A document with questions that were not addressed during previous webinars. HHS’s Office of the Inspector General has released its preparedness audit findings for the Office of Refugee Resettlement [...]

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10. Food and Drug Administration The FDA has issued emergency use authorization (EUA) for the investigational monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adult and pediatric patients. In issuing this EUA, the FDA noted that “While the safety and effectiveness of this investigational therapy continues to be evaluated, bamlanivimab was shown in clinical trials to reduce COVID-19-related hospitalization or emergency room visits in patients at high risk for disease progression within 28 days after treatment when compared to [...]