COVID-19

Coronavirus update for Monday, June 8 as of 2:30 p.m. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS has updated its “COVID-19 Emergency Declaration Blanket Waivers for Health Care Providers” document.  Added since the last version are a new section, on page 14, on altered time lines for Medicare’s Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model, along with two modifications:  one on page 10, addressing site-neutral payments for long-term care hospitals, and another on page 13, in support of care for patients in long-term care hospital patients. CMS – Stakeholder Engagement Calls CMS hosts recurring stakeholder engagement sessions to share information related [...]

Coronavirus update for Friday, June 5 as of 2:30 p.m. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services In the past week CMS issued six section 1135 waivers to give states greater flexibility to serve their Medicaid beneficiaries during the COVID-19 public health emergency.  It issued waivers to Alaska (two waivers), Arizona, Mississippi, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The CDC has updated its guidance on recommendations for people who believe they have been exposed to people with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 when the people to whom they have been exposed are neither health care workers nor critical infrastructure workers [...]

Coronavirus update for Tuesday, June 2, 2020 as of 2:45 p.m. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services The Quality, Safety & Oversight Group of CMS’s Center for Clinical Standards and Quality has written to state Medicaid agencies about COVID-19 survey activities, CARES Act funding, and enhanced enforcement for infection control deficiencies and quality improvement activities in nursing homes. The memo calls on states to do a more complete job of inspecting nursing homes for their infection control efforts, proposes penalties for states that fail to do so, and explains that CMS will allocate CARES Act funding based on performance-based metrics.  [...]

Coronavirus update for Friday, May 29 as of 2:30 p.m. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services In the past week CMS issued five section 1135 waivers to give states greater flexibility to serve their Medicaid beneficiaries during the COVID-19 public health emergency.  It issued waivers to Alaska, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Vermont. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The CDC has issued emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for two specific commercial diagnostic tests for COVID-19 intended for self-collection in the home or in health care settings. Find them here and here. The CDC has published information on considerations when preparing [...]

Coronavirus update for Wednesday, May 27 as of 2:30 p.m. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS has published a fact sheet for state and local governments on how to seek payments from CMS programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP for outpatient services and acute inpatient care provided at alternative care sites established in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Department of Health and Human Services ASPR TRACIE, sponsored by HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to provide Technical Resources, Assistance Center, and Information Exchange (TRACIE) services, in collaboration with the HHS/FEMA COVID-19 Healthcare Resilience [...]