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MLN Connects® Special Edition for Monday, March 30, 2020

COVID-19: Financial Relief, Nursing Home Telehealth, Quality Reporting, Clinical Laboratories, Hospital Data Sharing 

Trump Administration Provides Financial Relief for Medicare Providers

Under the President’s leadership, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing an expansion of its accelerated and advance payment program for Medicare participating health care providers and suppliers, to ensure they have the resources needed to combat the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). This program expansion, which includes changes from the recently enacted Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, is one way that CMS is working to lessen the financial hardships of providers facing extraordinary challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensures the nation’s providers can focus on patient care. There has been significant disruption to the health care industry, with providers being asked to delay non-essential surgeries and procedures, other health care staff unable to work due to childcare demands, and disruption to billing, among the challenges related to the pandemic.

“With our nation’s health care providers on the front lines in the fight against COVID-19, dollars and cents shouldn’t be adding to their worries,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “Unfortunately, the major disruptions to the health care system caused by COVID-19 are a significant financial burden on providers. Today’s action will ensure that they have the resources they need to maintain their all-important focus on patient care during the pandemic.”

Medicare provides coverage for 37.4 million beneficiaries in its Fee for Service (FFS) program, and made $414.7 billion in direct payments to providers during 2019. This effort is part of the Trump Administration’s White House Coronavirus Task Force effort to combat the spread of COVID-19 through a whole-of-America approach, with a focus on strengthening and leveraging public-private relationships.

Accelerated and advance Medicare payments provide emergency funding and address cash flow issues based on historical payments when there is disruption in claims submission and/or claims processing. These expedited payments are typically offered in natural disasters to accelerate cash flow to the impacted health care providers and suppliers. In this situation, CMS is expanding the program for all Medicare providers throughout the country during the public health emergency related to COVID-19. The payments can be requested by hospitals, doctors, durable medical equipment suppliers, and other Medicare Part A and Part B providers and suppliers.

To qualify for accelerated or advance payments, the provider or supplier must:

  • Have billed Medicare for claims within 180 days immediately prior to the date of signature on the provider’s/ supplier’s request form,

  • Not be in bankruptcy,

  • Not be under active medical review or program integrity investigation, and

  • Not have any outstanding delinquent Medicare overpayments.

Medicare will start accepting and processing the Accelerated/Advance Payment Requests immediately. CMS anticipates that the payments will be issued within seven days of the provider’s request.

An informational fact sheet on the accelerated/advance payment process and how to submit a request can be found here: www.cms.gov/files/document/Accelerated-and-Advanced-Payments-Fact-Sheet.pdf.

This action, and earlier CMS actions in response to COVID-19, are part of the ongoing White House Coronavirus Task Force efforts. To keep up with the important work the Task Force is doing in response to COVID-19, visit www.coronavirus.gov. For a complete and updated list of CMS actions, and other information specific to CMS, please visit the Current Emergencies Website.

Long-Term Care Nursing Homes Telehealth and Telemedicine Tool Kit

On March 27, CMS issued an electronic toolkit regarding telehealth and telemedicine for Long Term Care Nursing Home Facilities. Under President Trump’s leadership to respond to the need to limit the spread of community COVID-19, CMS has broadened access to Medicare telehealth services so that beneficiaries can receive a wider range of services from their doctors without having to travel to a healthcare facility. This document contains electronic links to reliable sources of information regarding telehealth and telemedicine, including the significant changes made by CMS over the last week in response to the National Health Emergency. Most of the information is directed towards providers who may want to establish a permanent telemedicine program, but there is information here that will help in the temporary deployment of a telemedicine program as well. There are specific documents identified that will be useful in choosing telemedicine vendors, equipment, and software, initiating a telemedicine program, monitoring patients remotely, and developing documentation tools. There is also information that will be useful for providers who intend to care for patients through electronic virtual services that may be temporarily used during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Toolkit

Quality Payment Program and Quality Reporting Program/Value Based Purchasing Program COVID-19 Relief

On March 22, 2020, CMS announced relief for clinicians, providers, hospitals, and facilities participating in quality reporting programs in response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). This memorandum and factsheet supplements and provides additional guidance to health care providers with regard to the announcement. CMS has extended the 2019 Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) data submission deadline from March 31 by 30 days to April 30, 2020. This and other efforts are to provide relief to clinicians responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the MIPS automatic extreme and uncontrollable circumstances policy will apply to MIPS eligible clinicians who do not submit their MIPS data by the April 30, 2020 deadline.

You can find a copy of the memo here: Memo

You can find a copy of the fact sheet here: Fact Sheet

Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) Guidance During COVID-19 Emergency

CMS issued important guidance ensuring that America’s clinical laboratories are prepared to respond to the threat of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19.) CMS is committed to taking critical steps to ensure America’s clinical laboratories are prepared to respond to the COVID-19 threat and other respiratory illnesses by implementing flexibilities around requirements for a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certificate during public health emergencies.

While there is no formal waiver authority under CLIA, CMS continue to exercise flexibilities under current regulations and through enforcement discretion to address temporary and remote testing sites, use of alternate specimen collection devices, and implementation of laboratory developed tests. Our hope is that this guidance provides the steps needed for all U.S. Labs wanting to apply for a CLIA certificate to test for COVID-19.

Guidance

FAQ

Trump Administration Engages America’s Hospitals in Unprecedented Data Sharing

On March 29, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to the nation’s hospitals on behalf of Vice President Pence requesting they report data in connection with their efforts to fight the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Specifically, the Trump Administration is requesting that hospitals report COVID-19 testing data to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in addition to daily reporting regarding bed capacity and supplies to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) COVID-19 Patient Impact and Hospital Capacity Module. CMS, the federal agency with oversight of America’s Medicare-participating health care providers – including hospitals – is helping the Trump Administration obtain this critical information to help identify supply and bed capacity needs, as well as enhance COVID-19 surveillance efforts. Hospitals will report data without personal identifying information to ensure patient privacy.

“The nation’s nearly 4,700 hospitals have access to testing data that’s updated daily. This data will help us better support hospitals to address their supply and capacity needs, as well as strengthen our surveillance efforts across the country,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “America’s hospitals are demonstrating incredible resilience in this unprecedented situation and we look forward to partnering further with them going forward.”

The White House Coronavirus Task Force is already collecting data from public health labs and private laboratory companies but does not have data from hospital labs that conduct laboratory testing in their hospital. This hospital data is needed at the federal level to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and CDC in their efforts to support states and localities in addressing and responding to the virus.
Academic, University and Hospital “in-house” labs are performing thousands of COVID-19 tests each day, but unlike private laboratories, the full results are not shared with government agencies working to track and analyze the virus. By sharing this critical data, hospitals can help Federal and state government mitigate the effects of COVID-19 and direct needed resources from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Government during this unprecedented crisis.

In Vice President Pence’s letter to America’s hospitals, he asks all hospitals to report data on COVID-19 testing performed in their “in-house” laboratories, which are hospitals’ onsite laboratories. To monitor the rapid emergence of COVID-19 and the impact on the health care system, the White House Coronavirus Task Force is requesting hospitals to report testing data to HHS each day and to the CDC’s NHSN. This new data request by the Trump Administration will help monitor the spread of severe COVID-19 illness and death as well as the impact to our nation’s hospitals. Because private and commercial laboratories already report, this letter is not applicable to them.
 

This action, and earlier CMS actions in response to COVID-19, are part of the ongoing White House Coronavirus Task Force efforts. To keep up with the important work the Task Force is doing in response to COVID-19, visit www.coronavirus.gov. For a complete and updated list of CMS actions, and other information specific to CMS, please visit the Current Emergencies Website.

Posted 3/30/2020

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