Summary
In this issue of the Weekly, we focus on the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). The PHE is currently set to expire on October 13, 2022. Since the Biden Administration did not provide its promised 60-day notice that the PHE would end on August 14th (60-days prior to the current expiration date), we anticipate that the PHE will be extended another 90 days to January 11, 2023.
Following this implicit decision to extend the PHE declaration at least one more time, the Administration announced last week its most comprehensive set of resources to-date on its plan for how to proceed once the PHE ends. Specifically, CMS is communicating via this new roadmap which Medicare flexibilities, requirements, and payments it continues to carry forward on a permanent basis. CMS does so by outlining the current flexibilities available on a provider/entity-specific basis and indicating in what ways it intends to make these permanent. Fact sheets are available for physicians and other clinicians, hospitals, long-term care facilities, Medicare Advantage and Part D plans, end stage renal disease facilities, and more.