NEWS ALERT
May 11, 2020
As part of
the ongoing White House Task Force efforts taken in response to
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), following is a summary of recent
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) actions. To keep up
with the important Task Force work being done in response to COVID-19,
click here www.coronavirus.gov. For information
specific to CMS, please visit the CMS News Room and Current Emergencies Website.
CMS updates these resources on an ongoing basis throughout
the day; the information below is current as of May 11, 2020 at 10:00
a.m. ET.
CMS Releases
Additional Waivers for Hospitals and Other Facilities
CMS continues
to release waivers for the healthcare community that provide the
flexibilities needed to take care of patients during the COVID-19 public
health emergency (PHE). CMS recently provided additional blanket waivers
for the duration of the PHE that:
·
Expand hospitals’ ability to offer long-term care services (“swing
beds”);
·
Waive distance requirements, market share, and bed requirements for Sole
Community Hospitals;
·
Waive certain eligibility requirements for Medicare-Dependent, Small
Rural Hospitals (MDHs); and
·
Update specific life safety code requirements for hospitals, hospice, and
long-term care facilities.
Telehealth
Video: Medicare Coverage and Payment of Virtual Services
CMS updated a
video that answers common questions
about the expanded Medicare telehealth services benefit during the
COVID-19 public health emergency. New information includes how CMS
adds services to the list of telehealth services, additional
practitioners that can provide telehealth services, and the distant site
services that Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and Federally Qualified Health
Centers (FQHCs) can provide. Further, the video includes information about
audio-only telehealth services, telehealth services that hospitals,
nursing homes and home health agencies can provide, along with how to
correctly bill for telehealth services.
Medicare
Pharmacies and Other Suppliers May Temporarily Enroll as Independent
Clinical Diagnostic Laboratories to Help Address COVID-19 Testing
CMS published
information for pharmacies and other suppliers that wish to enroll in
Medicare temporarily as independent clinical diagnostic laboratories to
help address the need for COVID-19 testing. Interested pharmacies and
suppliers will need to apply for a Clinical Laboratory Improvement
Amendments (CLIA) certificate. CMS wants to ensure that laboratories
located in the United States applying for a CLIA certificate are able to
begin testing for COVID-19 as quickly as possible.
CMS Gives
States Additional Flexibility to Address Coronavirus Pandemic
CMS has
approved over 175 requests for state relief in response to the COVID-19
pandemic, including recent approvals for Alabama, Alaska, California,
District of Columbia, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota,
Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina, Rhode
Island, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. These approvals help to
ensure that states have the tools they need to combat COVID-19 through a
wide variety of waivers, amendments, and Medicaid state plan
flexibilities, including support for programs that care for the elderly
and people with disabilities. CMS developed a toolkit to expedite the application
and review of each request and has approved these requests in record
time. These approved flexibilities support President Trump’s
commitment to a COVID-19 response that is locally executed, state
managed, and federally supported.
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