COVID-19 Update: April 29, 2020

COVID-19 update for Wednesday, April 29 as of 3:30 p.m.

Pennsylvania Update

Department of Human Services

DHS is accelerating estimated April-June 2020 Appendix 14 and 17 payments to the HealthChoices physical health managed care plans. That money should be distributed to hospitals on June 4.

Department of Health Daily Briefing

The state today reported a large increase in the COVID-19 death count, the result of researching and then reconciling data regarding questionable cases dating back a week or more. The increase does not suggest a sudden surge in deaths.
7698 residents of 461 long-term-care facilities have contracted COVID-19, as have 2634 health care workers.
2781 people with COVID-19 are currently hospitalized and 602 of them are on ventilators.
47 percent of the state’s hospital beds and 40 percent of its ICU beds are currently unoccupied and nearly 70 percent of its ventilators are idle.
Social distancing and masks will still be needed in areas of the state that reopen.
The state will provide information later this week about which types of businesses will be permitted to reopen and how it intends to undertake contact tracing.
The state has distributed a large quantity of N95 masks in the last 24 hours.
The state is still taking a regional approach to deciding which areas can begin to reopen but may deviate from that approach if appropriate.
Regular flu cases are not included in COVID-19 case counts. The state counts 130,000 cases of flu this season resulting in 102 deaths while it has had (so far) more than 43,000 cases of COVID-19 leading to 2195 deaths.
In addition to the quantitative measure to be used to help determine whether regions or counties are permitted to open, the state also will consider testing capacity, contact tracing plans, and health system capacity if there were to be another outbreak.
State officials are still discussing how much information, if any, to reveal about death and case counts in individual long-term-care facilities.

Governor Wolf

Governor Wolf, as expected, vetoed S.B. 857, which would have authorized health care professionals to use telemedicine and require its coverage and payment by health insurers. In his veto message, Governor Wolf noted that the bill, as amended in the House, interferes with women’s health care and the decision-making between patients and their physicians. As a reminder, the amendment would have prohibited numerous drugs determined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be “risky,” including a drug used to induce abortions, from eligibility for telemedicine consultative services.

General Assembly

Harrisburg, PA capital building Pennsylvania Senate Democrats unveiled their plan for using $3.9 billion in federal CARES Act money the state has received. To date, Governor Wolf and Senate and House Republican leaders have agreed to keep the money in the state Treasury while awaiting what they hope will be additional guidance from the federal government – and the possibility that they will be permitted to use the money to replace state revenue lost amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The Senate Democrats’ proposal would allocate $650 million of the $3.9 billion for certain health care providers, first responders, and frontline workers and $1.1 billion for individuals/families. See a complete list of how they would allocate the funding here.

Federal Update

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

CMS has posted a letter to clinicians participating in its Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) explaining how participating in a clinical trial and reporting their findings to a clinical data repository or registry may earn them credit in the 2020 performance period.
CMS has updated its FAQ on Medicare fee-for-service billing. The update features a new question on the MIPS program.
CMS has issued a transmittal on the quarterly update of the long-term-care hospital (LTCH) prospective payments system fiscal year 2020 pricer to reflect changes in the 50 percent rule, site-neutral payments, and the 25-day length-of-stay requirement during the COVID-19 emergency. The change request updates the LTCH pricer software used in original Medicare claims processing. The update also is described in an article in CMS’s online publication MLN Matters.
CMS is holding a COVID-19 stakeholders call for nurses on Thursday, April 30 at 3:30 p.m. (eastern). The toll-free dial-in number is 833-614-0820 and the access code is 4268398. An audio webcast can be reached here. Individuals who cannot participate during the call can find information about transcripts and podcasts here.
CMS is hosting a call for ambulatory surgery centers and freestanding emergency departments to provide updates on the agency’s latest COVID-19 guidance on Thursday, April 30 at 12 noon (eastern). Agency officials will be available to answer technical and operational questions from providers. The toll-free dial-in number is 833-614-0820 and the access code is 4366486. An audio webcast can be reached here. Individuals who cannot participate during the call can find information about transcripts and podcasts here.
CMS is holding a COVID-19 stakeholders call on “lessons from the front lines,” featuring CMS Administrator Seema Verma, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, MD, and the White House Coronavirus Task Force on Friday, May 1 at 12:30 p.m. (eastern). The toll-free dial-in number is 877-251-0301 and the access code is 9545128. An audio webcast can be reached here. Individuals who cannot participate during the call can find information about transcripts and podcasts here.