Policy Updates

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 [...]

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15. The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of Wednesday, April 15 at 4:00 p.m. The White House Yesterday President Trump announced the creation of the Dynamic Ventilator Reserve program through which health care providers with a surplus of ventilators will be able to share their reserves with hospitals that need additional ventilators.  Hospitals, the president noted when discussing this program, are already doing this, and he said the federal government will develop a reserve of ventilators [...]