As discussed in our client alert, recent legal developments have greatly expanded funding for and access to telehealth services during the COVID-19 crisis. Among the changes instituted by HHS are expanded Medicare coverage and payment for services, reduced or waived cost-sharing obligations for physicians, and loosening of the HIPAA enforcement policies for covered entities (which … Continue Reading
In a recent guidance, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) encouraged health care providers (HCPs) to limit elective surgeries and nonessential procedures during the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. CMS offered a number of recommendations to help HCPs decide how to best serve patients requiring emergent or urgent attention. In addition to clinical … Continue Reading
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) released its 2021 Medicare provider rate update recommendations on March 13, 2020 – the same day President Trump declared a national emergency due to COVID-19. MedPAC’s recommendations were based on an assessment of various Medicare “payment adequacy indicators” that are unlikely to reflect the state of the health care industry in … Continue Reading
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released official diagnosis coding guidance for health care encounters and deaths related to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), potentially in anticipation of more frequent cases in the United States. The guidance identifies specific ICD-10-CM codes to be used to code encounters. CDC advises that patients presenting … Continue Reading
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), although there have been imported cases of Covid-19 detected in the United States, “at this time, the virus is NOT currently spreading in the community in the United States.”[1] However, on Tuesday, February 25, 2020, Nancy Messonier, the CDC’s Director of National Center for … Continue Reading
The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV, also known as “SARS-CoV-2”) has been declared a public health emergency (PHE) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This designation authorizes HHS to direct funding to: (1) enable the dissemination of information about the virus; (2) encourage research and development of diagnostic and treatment techniques; (3) improve … Continue Reading
