On December 9, CMS posted updates to FAQs and an infographic about coverage and payment for monoclonal antibodies to treat COVID-19. The FAQs include general payment and billing guidance for these products, including questions on different setting types. The infographic has key facts about expected Medicare payment to providers and information about how Medicare beneficiaries can receive these innovative COVID-19 treatments with no cost-sharing during the public health emergency (PHE). CMS’ November 10, 2020 announcement about coverage of monoclonal antibody therapies allows a broad range of providers and suppliers, including freestanding and hospital-based infusion centers, home health agencies, nursing homes, and entities with whom nursing homes contract, to administer this treatment in accordance with the Food & Drug Administration’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), and bill Medicare to administer these infusions. Currently, two monoclonal antibody therapies have received EUA’s for treatment of COVID-19.

For More Information:

• Therapeutics Coverage Infographic
• Section BB of the FAQs: billing and payment for COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatments
• Monoclonal toolkit and program guidance

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated their Strategies for Optimizing the Supply of Facemasks to include added considerations for returning to conventional capacity. It discusses conventional capacity strategies, contingency capacity strategies and crisis capacity strategies.

The National Governors Association has released The Future of State Telehealth Policy. The document provides an overview of state and federal telehealth flexibilities implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic and discusses long-term considerations for governors regarding the impact of these flexibilities on healthcare delivery and payment and the appropriateness of these policies in the future.

This new initiative aims to increase access to employment through training, education and dedicated support from UPMC staff. Recognizing the growing unemployment impact Pennsylvanians are experiencing due to COVID-19, Pathways to Work makes a concerted effort to engage individuals in the community who are unemployed or underemployed and those with an intellectual, physical or behavioral disability who are looking for employment and no-cost job training programs. Interested individuals can email pathwaystowork@upmc.edu and they will receive a response within 1-2 business days from one of UPMC’s Pathways recruiters. Health centers are urged to share and promote this within the communities you serve to help mitigate some of the impacts of the pandemic.

Almost every county in Pennsylvania is now facing “substantial” spread of the coronavirus, according to the Wolf administration. A positivity rate of five percent or more is an indication of troubling community spread and Pennsylvania’s positivity rate has jumped to 11.7 percent, with the rate in some individual counties climbing above 20 percent. The only county not seeing a positivity rate of greater than five percent is Forest County. To date in Pennsylvania, more than 360,000 people have contracted COVID-19 and more than 10,300 deaths have been tied to the virus. Read more.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health has released a new document, COVID-19 Laboratory Testing FAQs. This is a good resource for labs and employers who would like to incorporate COVID-19 tests into their protocols.

A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators and Representatives have proposed a $908 billion coronavirus relief package that they are hoping is used as a basis for jumpstarting negotiations between the House and Senate. The proposed package calls for significantly less funding than the House had previously demanded and more than the Senate’s latest package. The framework includes $160 billion for state and local government aid, $180 billion in additional unemployment insurance, $288 billion for the small business Paycheck Protection Program, and short-term federal protection from coronavirus-related lawsuits, among other things. Senator McConnell has circulated his own framework for stimulus legislation to Republican members that would establish a fresh round of funding for the small-business Paycheck Protection Program and implement widespread liability protections. The liability protections have been a non-starter for Democratic leadership in the House.

Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed legislation, HB 1737, that would have provided limited liability protections to Pennsylvania businesses, arguing the bill “invites the potential for carelessness and a disregard for public safety.” The legislation, which was passed by the General Assembly earlier this month largely along party lines, would have shielded businesses–as well as schools, child care providers and personal protective equipment manufacturers and individuals using PPE–from civil lawsuits related to COVID-19 exposure.

The Wolf administration announced additional testing sites across Pennsylvania. The PA Department of Health entered a contract with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare (AMI) to provide COVID-19 testing in five regions across Pennsylvania to help contain local spread of COVID-19. Over the next 12 weeks, five strike teams will provide regional testing open to anyone who feels they need a test in the 61 counties that don’t have a health department. Up to 450 patients can be tested per day at each location using mid-nasal passage swab PCR tests. Testing is on a first-come, first-serve basis and is completely free to all patients. Click here to learn more about the testing plan and when AMI will be in your county.