On Wednesday, March 18, the President signed the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act” shortly after the Senate approved the legislation with a 90-8 vote. Last week, the House of Representatives approved a version of the bill which incorporated bipartisan technical changes, including paid sick leave and changes to the temporary increase of federal medical assistance percentages for Medicaid.  The bill text can be found here. A high-level analysis of key public health provisions in the legislation is provided below.

Public Health Provisions

• Requires private health plans to provide coverage for COVID-19 diagnostic testing at no cost to the consumer.
• Mandates that personal respiratory protective devices be treated as covered countermeasures under the PREP Act declaration.
• Provides a temporary increase to the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) of 6.2% to each state, including the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The increase will remain in effect until the close of the fiscal quarter during which the public health emergency ends.

Domestic Nutrition Assistance Programs

• Provides an additional $500 million for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
• Grants an additional $400 million to the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).
• Permits the Department of Agriculture to approve new state SNAP plans in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
• Provides $100 million in nutrition assistance grants for the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, America Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
• Releases $250 million for the senior nutrition program in the Administration for Community Living. Funding will provide meals to low-income seniors who:
  • Are home-bound
  • Have disabilities
  • Have multiple chronic illnesses
• Permits the Secretary of Agriculture to issue new nationwide school meal waivers.

Paid Sick Leave

• Grants $5 million to the Department of Labor to administer emergency paid sick leave.
• Requires employers with fewer than 500 employees and government employers to provide employees with two weeks of paid sick leave.
• Amends the Family and Medical Leave Act to grant the aforementioned groups the right to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave.

Other Provisions

• Requires OSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard within 30 days requiring healthcare employers to develop and implement a comprehensive infectious disease exposure control plan to protect healthcare workers from COVID-19.
• Releases an additional $1 billion in FY2020 emergency grants to states to process and pay unemployment insurance benefits.

Mandates that state emergency operations centers receive real-time reporting on aggregated COVID-19 testing data as well as results from state and local public health departments. This data is also required to be shared with the CDC.

The Center for Connected Health Care Policy has developed a chart that compares current Medicare Telehealth policy with what was proposed in the Connect for Health Act.  The chart can be accessed here.

On March 18, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is posting an update to its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the Medicaid.gov website to aid state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) agencies in their response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. CMS is taking this action to continue its efforts to protect the health and safety of providers and patients, including those who are covered by Medicaid and CHIP.

You can find the updated FAQs here:  https://www.medicaid.gov/state-resource-center/downloads/covid-19-faqs.pdf

These FAQs, and earlier CMS actions in response to the COVID-19 virus, are part of the ongoing White House Task Force efforts. To keep up with the important work the Task Force is doing in response to COVID-19, click here www.coronavirus.gov. For information specific to CMS, please visit the Current Emergencies Website.

On March 18, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that all elective surgeries, non-essential medical, surgical, and dental procedures be delayed during the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.   You can find a copy of the press release here: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-releases-recommendations-adult-elective-surgeries-non-essential-medical-surgical-and-dental

You can find a copy of the guidance here: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/31820-cms-adult-elective-surgery-and-procedures-recommendations.pdf

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is taking action to protect the health and safety of our nation’s patients and providers in the wake of the 2019 Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.  In an effort to be transparent and share this information broadly, CMS will be posting several of our stakeholder calls.  CMS held a National Stakeholder Call on March 13, 2020, to update the healthcare community on the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation which was declared a national emergency by President Trump on March 13.   This bold move empowered CMS to waive certain federal requirements in Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP to rapidly expand the Administration’s aggressive efforts against COVID-19 led by the White House Coronavirus Taskforce.

The transcript and audio recording from that call are now available to download. CMS will hold future calls and post those transcripts and audio recordings as they become available. To access Coronavirus COVID-19 Stakeholder calls visit:  https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/OpenDoorForums/PodcastAndTranscripts   This call and earlier CMS actions in response to the COVID-19 virus, are part of the ongoing White House Task Force efforts. To keep up with the important work the Task Force is doing in response to COVID-19 click here Coronavirus.gov.  For information specific to CMS, please visit the Current Emergencies Website

For more information on COVID-19 visit:

Coronavirus.gov

USA.gov

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is taking action to protect the health and safety of our nation’s patients and providers in the wake of the 2019 Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. CMS has released a Virtual Toolkit to help you stay up-to-date on CMS materials available on COVID-19.

For more information on COVID-19 visit:

Coronavirus.gov

USA.gov

This guidance, and earlier CMS actions in response to the COVID-19 virus, are part of the ongoing White House Task Force efforts. To keep up with the important work the Task Force is doing in response to COVID-19 click here Coronavirus.gov.  For information specific to CMS, please visit the Current Emergencies Website.

As things rapidly develop on both what we know about COVID-19, policies around telehealth have also been developing alongside of it.  The Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) at the National Telehealth Resource Center Below, has developed a summary of what is covered by various public and private payers with the information that has been released. Keep in mind that events are evolving and to consider this a living document that could change frequently as new information and new policies become available/are enacted. CCHP will continue to make updates when they become available. The summary can be accessed at on CCHP’s website under the “Featured” section of the homepage.

On March 17, 2020 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued guidance to all Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) Organizations (POs) to protect the health and safety of Americans in response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. PACE is a Medicare and Medicaid program that helps people meet their healthcare needs in the community instead of going to a nursing home or other care facility. CMS is putting out COVID-19 guidance to all types of healthcare providers and facilities. PACE is the latest area of focus because these organizations serve older adults who often have serious chronic medical conditions and therefore are at higher risk of serious illness from the virus.

You can find a copy of the press release here:: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-sends-guidance-programs-all-inclusive-care-elderly-pace-organizations

For a complete and updated list of CMS actions, and other information specific to CMS, please visit the Current Emergencies Website.