On May 3, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced a new program covering costs of administering COVID-19 vaccines to patients enrolled in health plans that either do not cover vaccination fees or cover them with patient cost-sharing. Since providers cannot bill patients for COVID-19 vaccination fees, this new program, the COVID-19 Coverage Assistance Fund (CAF), addresses an outstanding compensation need for providers on the front lines vaccinating underinsured patients.

Click here for the Press Release and Fact Sheet of the CAF.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Pennsylvania’s nation-leading mushroom industry stepped up to the plate to both feed America and keep their workers safe. Now, after a collaborative effort by the Pennsylvania Departments of Agriculture and Health, the American Mushroom Institute, LCH Health and Community Services, and the Chester County Health Department, mushroom farmworkers are scheduled to receive the one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

Following updated guidance announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Pennsylvania Department of Health has notified all COVID-19 vaccine providers that the pause in administering the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) vaccine has been lifted.

“From day one of this pandemic we labeled agriculture as life-sustaining, but that label came with a heavy responsibility to keep food available and safe – we all relied on it,” said Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. “We all have a new appreciation for who is feeding us now – the people who grow and pack and process our food. We need them to be protected so that our food supply is protected.

“The American Mushroom Institute recognized both needs – they’ve worked hard to educate their workforce about the vaccine and boost confidence in the science. They now have a workforce who wants protection,” added Redding.

Pennsylvania is home to more than 60,000 farmworkers – both citizen and migrant – who work to ensure Pennsylvania’s farms run efficiently and produce food to feed the nation. Pennsylvania’s mushroom industry leads the nation in production, with nearly 60% of all mushroom production occurring in and around Chester County. The industry supports nearly 9,000 jobs and contributes $1.1 billion to the economy.

These farmworkers became eligible for vaccine as part of the commonwealth’s expanded special initiative to vaccinate frontline workers.

“Farmworkers play an important role in keeping the food supply flowing,” said Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam. “By bringing the COVID-19 vaccine directly to the mushroom farmworkers we are ensuring part of our food supply chain and helping to protect thousands of people doing critical work.”

The commonwealth has dedicated more than 5,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to farmworkers of the American Mushroom Institute network. The vaccinations are scheduled to take place through mid-May and will serve multiple farms and packing houses.

“We greatly appreciate the PA Department of Health and Department of Agriculture for their commitment in helping to bring much-needed vaccines to the mushroom farming community’s workers,” said Rachel Roberts, president of the American Mushroom Institute. “These front-line workers have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to harvest, pack, and transport fresh mushrooms to for consumers around the country. We welcome this effort.”

With the majority of the mushroom farmworker workforce being Latinx and Spanish-speaking, the partnership with LCH Health and Community Services – the local federally qualified healthcare center that serves much of the Chester County-area migrant worker population – is critical to the success of the vaccination initiative. LCH ensures staff and resources for the farmworkers are bilingual to achieve optimal education for maximum confidence in the vaccine.

“Mushroom farms, related businesses, and the community that relies on them have been a focus of the Chester County Health Department throughout the pandemic,” said Jeanne Franklin, Public Health Director for Chester County. “Working together with the American Mushroom Institute and partners like LCH has helped us to keep our southern Chester County community informed and prepared to meet the challenges of COVID-19, and this support from the State certainly advances our timeline in the crucial vaccination process.”

The decision to offer on-site delivery of the one-shot vaccine was decided by the essentiality of these workers and the risks they face every day to feed the commonwealth coupled with the disproportionate impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Black and Brown communities and the recognition of barriers like transportation or language access that may have prevented or delayed these workers from accessing the vaccine.

Essential workers who get the COVID-19 vaccine are protecting themselves, their family, their co-workers, and their community. In addition to this, farmworkers who choose to protect their health with the vaccine are also protecting the availability and accessibility of food.

As COVID-19 vaccines continue rolling out across the country, CMS is taking action to protect the health and safety of our nation’s patients and providers and keeping you updated on the latest COVID-19 resources from HHS, CDC and CMS.

With information coming from many different sources, CMS has up-to-date resources and materials to help you share important and relevant information on the COVID-19 vaccine with the people that you serve. You can find these and more resources on the COVID-19 Partner Resources Page and the HHS COVID Education Campaign page. We look forward to partnering with you to encourage our beneficiaries to get vaccinated when they have the opportunity. For more information, visit the CMS COVID-19 Policies and Guidance page.

COVID-19 SNAPSHOT OF NEW COVID-19 VACCINE INFORMATION

CMS, CDC and HHS have released new guidance and resources related to the COVID-19 vaccine to serve our beneficiaries. This important information is highlighted below for our partners to share with providers and consumers.

No Out-of-Pocket Cost for COVID-19 Vaccine. CMS has recently become aware of instances where consumers are being charged to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.  We encourage you to remind vaccine providers of the following information as the vaccine becomes more widely available help curb any consumer barriers to receiving a vaccine.

COVID-19 VACCINE PROVIDER REMINDER:

If you participate in the CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Program, you must:

• Administer the vaccine with no out-of-pocket cost to your patients for the vaccine or administration of the vaccine
• Vaccinate everyone, including the uninsured, regardless of coverage or network status

You also can’t:

• Balance bill for COVID-19 vaccinations
• Charge your patients for an office visit or other fee if COVID-19 vaccination is the only medical service given
• Require additional medical or other services during the visit as a condition for getting a COVID-19 vaccination

Report any potential violations of these requirements to the HHS Office of the Inspector General:

• Call 1-800-HHS-TIPS
• Submit an online complaint

Submit claims for administering COVID-19 vaccines to:

• Medicare, if your patient has Medicare Part B coverage or, for 2020 and 2021, Medicare Advantage (Part C)
• Private insurance company (PDF), including if your patient only has Medicare Part A coverage with supplemental coverage from a private insurer
• Your state’s Medicaid program for patients with Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage
• Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) COVID-19 Uninsured Program, including if your Medicare patient only has Part A coverage with no supplemental coverage

For more information on COVID-19 Vaccine Administration, visit the CMS COVID-19 Vaccine Provider page.

COVID-19 VACCINE CONSUMER REMINDER. In addition, we encourage you to share the information below with consumers to help address issues relating to consumers who may have received a charge or paid for COVID-19 vaccination.

If you paid to get a COVID-19 vaccine: When you get a COVID-19 vaccine, your provider can’t charge you for an office visit or other fee if the vaccine is the only medical service you get. If you get other medical services at the same time you get the COVID-19 vaccine, you may owe a copayment or deductible for those services.

If you paid a fee or got a bill for a COVID-19 vaccine, check this list to see if your provider should have charged you:

• Check the receipts and statements you get from your provider for any mistakes.
• Call your provider’s office to ask about any charges you think are incorrect. The person you speak to may help you better understand the services you got, or realize they made a billing error.
• If you have Original Medicare, review your “Medicare Summary Notice” for errors. Report anything suspicious to Medicare by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).
• If you have other coverage like a Medicare Advantage Plan, review your “Explanation of Benefits.” Report anything suspicious to your insurer.

If you think your provider incorrectly charged you for the COVID-19 vaccine, ask them for a refund. If you think your provider charged you for an office visit or other fee, but the only service you got was a COVID-19 vaccine, report them to the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services by calling 1-800-HHS-TIPS or visiting TIPS.HHS.GOV.

NEW COVID-19 VACCINE RESOURCES

CDC Guidance for Fully Vaccinated People: What you Need to Know.

• If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing many things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.
• When choosing safer activities, consider how COVID-19 is spreading in your community, the number of people participating in the activity, and the location of the activity.
• Outdoor visits and activities are safer than indoor activities, and fully vaccinated people can participate in some indoor events safely, without much risk. Additional CDC guidance can be found here.
• If you haven’t been vaccinated yet, find a COVID-19 near you at Vaccines.gov.

NEW CMS COVID-19 Fraud Resources. CMS just launched new materials to help protect Medicare beneficiaries against COVID-19 vaccine fraud.  Spread the word by sharing the resources, graphics and messaging within your communities:

• Use the social media messaging and downloadable graphics in the COVID-19 Fraud Campaign toolkit.
• Play the videos, Protect Yourself from Fraud and What Do You Say to Vaccine Scammers? in waiting areas, on webinars and at conferences.
• Share information in your newsletters – Learn to detect and prevent vaccine fraud at Medicare.gov/fraud
• Additional resources can be found on the COVID-19 Partner Resources Page.

Building COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Webinar: Thursday, May 13th from 12:00-1:00 p.m. E.T. – hosted by the CMS Office of Minority Health.

Dr. LaShawn McIver, Director of CMS OMH, will share information and resources to help you address vaccine hesitancy in your community. Dr. McIver will be joined by Dr. Peter Marks, Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at FDA, who will give an overview of vaccines and their safety. This webinar will equip you to speak persuasively about the COVID-19 vaccine. Register here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6555661473692736014

Please note: You will receive an email with login information from GoToWebinar upon registration. If you do not receive an email in a few days’ time, please contact CMSOMHTeam@ketchum.com.

For more information on CMS COVID-19 Partner Updates, please contact us: Partnership@cms.hhs.gov

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought overwhelming grief to many families. At FEMA, our mission is to help people before, during and after disasters. We are dedicated to helping ease some of the financial stress and burden caused by the virus.

Under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, FEMA will provide financial assistance for COVID-19-related funeral expenses incurred after January 20, 2020.

COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Line Number

Applications accepted as of April 12, 2021
844-684-6333 | TTY: 800-462-7585

Hours of Operation:
Monday – Friday
9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time

Call this dedicated toll-free phone number to get a COVID-19 Funeral Assistance application completed with help from FEMA’s representatives. Multilingual services will be available.

Proposed rule would require hospitals to report vaccination rates among health care staff

On April 27, CMS issued a proposed rule (CMS-1752-P) for inpatient and long-term care hospitals that builds on the Biden Administration’s key priorities to close health care equity gaps and provide greater accessibility to care. Major provisions in the proposed rule would fund medical residency positions in hospitals in rural and underserved communities to address workforce shortages and require hospitals to report COVID-19 vaccination rates among their workers to contain the spread of the virus.

CMS recognizes the importance of encouraging more health professionals to work in rural hospitals and underserved areas and the need to retain and train high-quality physicians to help address access to health care in these communities. In accordance with the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, CMS is proposing to distribute 1,000 additional physician residency slots to qualifying hospitals, phasing in 200 slots per year over five years. CMS estimates that the additional funding for these additional residency slots, once fully phased in, will total approximately $0.3 billion each year to fund medical residency positions in hospitals to address the workforce shortages.

“Hospitals are often the backbone of rural communities – but the COVID-19 pandemic has hit rural hospitals hard, and too many are struggling to stay afloat,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “This rule will give hospitals more relief and additional tools to care for COVID-19 patients, and it will also bolster the health care workforce in rural and underserved communities. The Biden Administration is committed to expanding health equity in communities across the country, especially in rural America.”

Consistent with President Biden’s Executive Order 13985 on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, CMS is also committed to addressing significant and persistent inequities in health outcomes in the U.S. through improving data collection to better measure and analyze disparities across programs and policies. In this proposed rule, CMS is soliciting feedback on opportunities to leverage diverse sets of data (race, Medicare/Medicaid dual eligible status, disability status, LGTBQ+, socioeconomic status, etc.) and new methodological approaches to advance equity through the quality measurement and value-based purchasing programs.

The rule also proposes to implement section 9831 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to permanently reinstate the imputed floor-wage-index for all-urban States for FY 2022.

Additionally, the rule proposes to update Medicare Fee-for-Service payment rates and policies for acute care inpatient hospitals and long-term care hospitals for fiscal year 2022. CMS estimates total Medicare spending on acute care inpatient hospital services will increase by about $2.5 billion in fiscal year 2022.

Strengthening COVID-19 Ongoing Response

In November 2020, CMS established the New COVID-19 Treatments Add-on Payment (NCTAP) to mitigate any potential financial disincentives for hospitals to provide new COVID-19 treatments during the Public Health Emergency (PHE). The proposed rule would extend the NCTAP for certain eligible technologies through the end of the fiscal year in which the PHE ends.

In addition, the proposed rule seeks to strengthen the ongoing response to the PHE and future health threats by leveraging meaningful measures for quality programs. CMS is proposing the adoption of the COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage among Healthcare Personnel (HCP) Measure to require hospitals to report COVID-19 vaccinations of workers in their facilities. This proposed measure is designed to assess whether hospitals are taking steps to limit the spread of COVID-19 among their workforce, reduce the risk of transmission within their facilities, help sustain the ability of hospitals to continue serving their communities through the PHE, and assess the nation’s long-term recovery and readiness efforts.

Additionally, CMS is proposing to modify the Promoting Interoperability program requirements for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals to expand reporting within the Public Health and Clinical Data Exchange Objective. The proposal would require hospitals to report on all four of the following measures: Syndromic Surveillance Reporting, Immunization Registry Reporting, Electronic Case Reporting, and Electronic Reportable Laboratory Result Reporting.

Requiring hospitals to report these four measures would help to prepare public health agencies to respond to future health threats and a long-term COVID-19 recovery by strengthening public health functions, including early warning surveillance, case surveillance, and vaccine uptake, which will increase the information available to help hospitals better serve their patients. Requiring these measures would enable nationwide syndromic surveillance for early warning of emerging outbreaks and threats; automated case and laboratory reporting for rapid public health response; and local and national visibility on immunization uptake so public health can tailor vaccine distribution strategies.

More Information:

• Proposed rule: CMS will accept comments until June 28
• Fact sheet

As COVID-19 vaccines continue rolling out across the country, CMS is taking action to protect the health and safety of our nation’s patients and providers and keeping you updated on the latest COVID-19 resources from HHS, CDC and CMS.

With information coming from many different sources, CMS has up-to-date resources and materials to help you share important and relevant information on the COVID-19 vaccine with the people that you serve. You can find these and more resources on the COVID-19 Partner Resources Page and the HHS COVID Education Campaign page. We look forward to partnering with you to encourage our beneficiaries to get vaccinated when they have the opportunity. For more information, visit the CMS COVID-19 Policies and Guidance page.

SPREAD THE WORD

As of Monday, April 19, 2021, every person 16 years and older in the United States will be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. You can help spread the word so every adult knows they are now eligible. Use the NEW COVID-19 Community Corps Social Media Toolkit to spread the word about expanded eligibility.

HHS Campaigns

HHS just launched a COVID-19 Public Education Campaign, We Can Do This, which is a national initiative to increase public confidence in and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines while reinforcing basic prevention measures such as mask wearing and social distancing.

Campaign resources and toolkits are available to reach diverse communities. NEW toolkits are now available for different populations including:

• American Indian/Alaskan Native and Tribal Leaders Toolkit
• Older Adults Toolkit
• Nurses & Health Care Workers Toolkit
• Essential Workers in Agriculture Toolkit

These toolkits include helpful resources such as fact sheets, videos, posters, print ads and social media. For more information, go to the Campaign Resources and Toolkits page, and search the available resources by audience, format and language to find what you need for the people that you serve.

Share VaccineFinder: Call, text, or forward this email to people you know who are having trouble finding a vaccine in their area. Vaccination is the best tool to defeat this pandemic – access shouldn’t be a barrier. You can find the VaccineFinder here.

HHS Initiatives

April is National Minority Health Month. This year, HHS is focusing on the impacts COVID-19 is having on racial and ethnic minority and American Indian and Alaska Native communities and underscoring the need for these vulnerable communities to get vaccinated as more vaccines become available. The theme for National Minority Health Month is #VaccineReady.

Spread the word by accessing and sharing the resources in the National Minority Health Month Toolkit, which has resources, sample social media messages, and downloadable graphics.

Visit the website (English | Spanish), sign up to receive email updates on news and activities, and follow HHS on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

For more information, please contact us: Partnership@cms.hhs.gov

Telehealth.HHS.gov has added a new best practice guide to help mental health providers navigate changes to telehealth policy due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. This official website from HHS includes resources for getting started, developing a strategy, billing, preparing patients, and more.