COVID-19 update for Tuesday, May 5 as of 3:00 p.m.
Pennsylvania Update
Governor Wolf: Reopening Pennsylvania
Governor Wolf has provided guidance to businesses as 24 counties move to the “yellow phase” of reopening beginning this Friday, May 8. The guidance details procedures businesses must follow to conduct in-person operations. See the administration’s announcement of the guidance here and go here for the guidance itself.
Department of Human Services
During its April 29 COVID-19 webinar, DHS officials explained that the department has accelerated certain capitation payments to Medicaid MCOs. This action will enable the advance in appendix 14 and appendix 17 payments described previously, which are expected to be distributed to hospitals on June 4.- During that same webinar, DHS officials also discussed a recent change in prior authorization requirements for long-term acute hospital admissions.
- DHS’s Office of Medical Assistance Programs has updated its FAQ about coverage of COVID-19 testing and related services for participants in the state’s CHIP program.
Department of Health
The Department of Health has published interim guidance on conditions and circumstances for discontinuing non-health care isolation for persons with COVID-19.
The department has written to the leaders of hospitals, health care facilities, and laboratories asking them to complete a survey that will be used by the state to determine Pennsylvania’s current capacity for administering COVID-19 tests. See the letter here and the survey here.
Department of Health Daily Briefing
After reconciling death count data over the past two weeks, including data from Philadelphia, the state has added 554 new deaths to its total count. This raises the total death count nearly 23 percent over yesterday’s announced total.- Among the nearly 51,000 Pennsylvanians who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 are 3200 health care workers, more than 9600 residents of long-term-care facilities, and more than 2000 workers in food processing facilities.
- 2583 Pennsylvanians are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 and 542 of them are on ventilators.
- 46 percent of the state’s acute-care hospital beds and 40 percent of its ICU vents are unoccupied and nearly 75 percent of its ventilators are idle.
- Secretary Levine told a legislative committee that the state would not provide personal protective equipment to hospitals that have resumed performing non-urgent procedures because one of the conditions for resuming such procedures is having an adequate supply of such materials.
Federal Update
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- CMS has updated its FAQ for state Medicaid and CHIP programs. Among the issues the FAQ addresses are emergency preparedness and response, eligibility and enrollment flexibilities, benefit flexibilities, cost-sharing flexibilities, financing flexibilities, managed care flexibilities, information technology and data reporting. A separate document includes only the new questions.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The CDC has posted guidance for nasal (anterior nasal) specimen collection for COVID-19 diagnostic testing.- The CDC has updated its interim guidance for collecting, handling, and testing clinical specimens from persons with COVID-19.
- The CDC has updated its strategies for optimizing supplies of personal protective equipment.
- The CDC has posted general guidance for handling bulk-packaged sterile swabs properly for upper respiratory sample collection during the COVID-19 crisis.
- The CDC has posted guidance for proposed use of point-of-care testing platforms for COVID-19.
Food and Drug Administration
- The FDA has updated its policy on the review and approval of diagnostic and antibody tests for COVID-19. In a commentary titled “Insight Into FDA’s Revised Policy on Antibody Tests for COVID-19,” FDA officials explain the evolution of the agency’s approach to issuing emergency use authorizations for antibody tests. The new policy itself can be found here.
- The FDA has issued emergency use authorizations (EUA) for two specific commercial diagnostic tests for COVID-19. See them here and here.
Medicaid Health Plans of America
- Medicaid Health Plans of America, a trade association that represents more than 90 Medicaid managed care plans serving Medicaid beneficiaries in 37 states, has written to leaders of Congress to ask that they increase the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP), the rate at which the federal government matches state Medicaid expenditures, by 12 percent retroactive to January 1, 2020 and through September 30, 2021. The group also asked Congress to delay or cancel CMS’s Medicaid fiscal accountability regulation (MFAR).
Resources to Consult
Pennsylvania Department of Human Services
Pennsylvania Department of Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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