Medicare Shared Savings Program: CMS Flexibilities to Fight COVID-19 Since the beginning of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, the Trump Administration has issued an unprecedented array of temporary regulatory waivers and new rules to equip the American healthcare system with maximum flexibility to respond to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. These temporary changes will […]
Participants in the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program: CMS Flexibilities to Fight COVID-19 The Trump Administration is issuing an unprecedented array of temporary regulatory waivers and new rules to equip the American healthcare system with maximum flexibility to respond to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Made possible by President Trump’s recent emergency declaration and emergency […]
Medicare 1135 Waivers & Two Interim Final Rules Enabling Health System Expansion Medicare 1135 Waivers & Two Interim Final Rules •CMS has two critical roles: •Ensure Medicare beneficiaries receive safeand effectivecare during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). •Ensure Medicare payment/coverage policies during the COVID-19 PHE do not impedeproviders working to expand capacity to treat […]
Updated: 5/1/2020 COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) Billing The FAQs in this document supplement the following previously released FAQs: 1135 Waiver FAQs, available at https://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency- Information/Emergency/Downloads/MedicareFFS-EmergencyQsAs1135Waiver.pdf, and Without 1135 Waiver FAQs, available at https://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency- Information/Emergency/Downloads/Consolidated_Medicare_FFS_Emergency_QsAs.pdf). We note that in many instances, the general statements of the FAQs referenced above have been […]
As we’ve previously discussed on the blog, telehealth is playing a critical role in delivering care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both Congress and states continue to take action to expand the use and reimbursement of telehealth services. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) passed by Congress last Friday includes many provisions that further […]
Health systems across the country rapidly stood up virtual care programs to monitor COVID-19 patients from home and it proved to be a crucial tool during the pandemic. As the country begins to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, these virtual tools, including telehealth, remote monitoring technologies, and wearables, will become a way of life for patients […]
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai called telehealth investments and advancements the “silver lining” of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic at a May 6 Brookings Institution webinar. “The future is very bright for telehealth,” Pai said at the event, “and if we can take one silver lining of this dismal time is that we are […]
HHS and OCR have issued several COVID-19 HIPAA waivers around telehealth and data sharing amid the pandemic. But it’s crucial providers keep privacy and security in focus. The nationwide public health emergency brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak has led to several Good Faith HIPAA waivers from the Department of Health and Human Services and […]
You may be hearing some new words thrown around due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Terms like telehealth, telemedicine, remote-patient monitoring (RPM), virtual care, and digital health have been around for years, but the recent situation is accelerating patient awareness and physician adoption of these technologies. With a growing need for social isolation, healthcare organizations are actively seeking ways to provide […]
Telehealth has long faced a number of obstacles to widespread adoption. Beyond a number of operational and clinical hurdles, widespread implementation of telehealth has been hindered by various legal and regulatory barriers. The COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented limitations on in-person healthcare delivery, however, have led to a flurry of state and federal emergency healthcare […]
The Health and Human Services Department is issuing $20 million in COVID-19 funds to four telehealth programs for pediatric and maternal care and two efforts to expand interstate license portability. Federal officials have awarded $20 million to four healthcare providers and two organizations to improve telehealth outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic – including efforts to […]
On April 30, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a second round of sweeping regulatory waivers and rule changes in an effort to expand care to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and give greater flexibility to hospitals, other providers and suppliers furnishing services to Medicare beneficiaries as America responds to the COVID-19 pandemic and […]
Doctors relying on eased telehealth rules to treat patients during the pandemic could face familiar obstacles to remote treatment when enforcement of security and privacy requirements return. Chatting with physicians online has drastically expanded during the pandemic via video-conferencing apps such as Google Meet, Zoom, Skype, and Apple FaceTime. That was more difficult when privacy […]
Telehealth. It’s no longer just a nice-to-have, but instead a must-have for patients and healthcare professionals alike during these uncertain times the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about. While we all wish that it hadn’t taken a pandemic to propel telehealth forward, for better or for worse, it has. The spotlight is now on telehealth in […]
If you are looking for financial assistance in providing telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, a newly created $200 million government program may be able to help defray the costs of continuing to provide care to patients remotely. Featured updates: COVID-19 The COVID-19 Telehealth Program is part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is taking applications […]