The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today announced additional regulatory waivers and rule changes to expand diagnostic testing for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, telehealth in Medicare, hospital capacity and the health care workforce during the COVID-19 emergency.

The telehealth changes, for example, allow hospital outpatient departments to bill for certain Medicare telehealth services, expand the types of providers that can furnish Medicare telehealth services to physical and occupational therapists, speech language pathologists and others, and allow more telehealth services to be provided by audio-only connection.

Other changes allow teaching hospitals to increase their number of temporary beds without facing reduced payments for indirect medical education; and certain provider-based hospital outpatient departments that relocate off-campus to obtain a temporary exception and continue to be paid at the full outpatient prospective payment system rate, rather than the reduced site-neutral rate.

CMS also issued additional FAQs clarifying Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requirements, flexibilities and considerations for hospitals and other providers during the pandemic.

Watch for an AHA Special Bulletin tomorrow with more details.

Related News Articles

Headline
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will update its immunization schedules for the COVID-19 and chickenpox vaccines to adopt recent recommendations…
Headline
The Food and Drug Administration today issued a request for public comment on a series of questions regarding current approaches to evaluating artificial…
Headline
The Food and Drug Administration yesterday announced that Olympus issued a global recall of its ViziShot 2 FLEX needles manufactured prior to May 12 following…
Headline
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Sept. 19 recommended that patients should consult their health care provider if they want to receive a COVID-…
Headline
The Department of Health and Human Services Sept. 18 announced it will take new actions to help improve care for individuals with long COVID. They include a…
Headline
The Food and Drug Administration has identified a Class I recall for Mo-Vis BVBA R-net Joysticks due to a firmware error that causes the wheelchair to ignore…