Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) – Medicare

On March 13, 2020, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation declaring a national emergency concerning the novel coronavirus disease (the “Emergency Declaration”).  The president framed the emergency declaration as empowering the Secretary of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) to waive “laws to enable telehealth,” which gave providers hope that the administration would remove some of the primary […]

The Trump administration on Tuesday announced an emergency expansion of telehealth coverage for Medicare beneficiaries amid the COVID-19 outbreak, removing multiple regulatory barriers to doctors providing remote care for nursing home residents. Retroactive to March 6, Medicare can pay for virtual consultations provided through telehealth platforms across the country, including those conducted in a patient’s […]

On March 6, 2020, the president signed into law H.R. 6074, the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act (“Act”). This law provides $8.3 billion in emergency funding for federal agencies to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. In addition, the law allows the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“Secretary”) to […]

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a bulletin reiterating the ways that patient information may be shared under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rule in an outbreak of infectious disease or other emergency situation. The bulletin serves as a reminder that […]