HHS expands public health emergency, COVID-19 payment flexibility

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By Jacqueline LaPointe

July 27, 2020: HHS recently extended the national public fitness emergency declared for the COVID-1nine pandemic, extending the COVID-1nine payment and regulatory flexibilities granted during the period.

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The declaration signed on Thursday renewed the public fitness emergency first declared in late January more than one day before its expiration on July 25, 2020. Without the hot declaration, legal and regulatory flexibilities, such as the 20% Medicare supplemental payment, would cease.

The new declaration will enlarge the national public fitness emergency over an additional 90 days, in accordance with the Public Health Services Act.

“The Administration will continue its backlash across the United States so that Americans can get the attention the pandemic prefers,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a July 23 tweet.

HHS has published a wide range of regulatory exemptions and flexibilities during the public fitness emergency to help physique care providers during the pandemic. Flexibilities come with Medicare payment and billing changes to fill the investment gap facing large COVID-19 apple organizations.

For example, Medicare will pay a 20 percent add-on payment for inpatient hospital COVID-19 patients for the duration of the public health emergency. Medicare also released waivers for COVID-19 patients during the emergency period, including the long-term care hospital (LTCH) site-neutral payment policy, the LTCH “50% Rule,” and the inpatient rehabilitation facility “3-Hour Rule.”

In addition, HHS has implemented key telephony payment and public fitness emergency policy flexibilities, adding an expanded telephony center policy provided to Medicare beneficiaries in a wider variety of locations.

The minischeck out has also increased reimbursement rates for legally new telephony services.

Earlier this month, about two-thirds of number one care physicians who responded to a survey said they were unprepared for a loss or relief on refund rates over the phone. In addition, less than 10% said their practice can also simply withdraw payments.

HHS plans to consistently make consistent the permanent exemptions and flexibilities granted during the public fitness emergency. Significant adoption of telephone centers during the pandemic, for example, led the CMS to deliver sustainable conceptual changes in Telefitness Medicare policy and consistent with the reimbursement of the centers.

However, with the growing public fitness emergency, providers have no less than two additional months to grant maximum exemption and flexibility to their pandemic reaction efforts.

“This will allow us to continue our efforts to make hospitals and fitness systems use everything necessary to have machinery to respond to COVID-19,” Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association (AHA), said in a statement.

The AHA had asked the HHS secretary, Azar, to increase the public emergency of physical fitness in a letter on 9 June describing the benefits of the pandemic exemptions and flexibilities. The Association has also recently advocated the ongoing implementation of related exemptions and flexibilities, adding an expanded telephony and payments policy, the elimination of explicit practice limitations for nursing professionals, independent site payment exceptions, and reduced conditions for participating in Medicare.

“The declaration of a public fitness emergency has given hospitals and fitness systems and our caregivers the strength to respond in an innovative, timely and decisive manner to the virus,” Pollack said. “It has been an invaluable tool in the opposite fight to COVID-1 nine in providing the resources available to patients and communities, such as increased use of telemedicine and the strength to produce care at alternative care sites.

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