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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