On May 21, 2020, Michigan Governor Whitmer issued Executive Order (EO) 2020-96, which permits outpatient healthcare facilities (e.g., primary care physician offices and dental offices) to re-open and perform non-essential medical and dental procedures. EO 2020-96, in part, rescinds prior EO 2020-17 as of May 28, 2020 at 11:59 p.m.,…
In a continued effort to combat the nation’s opioid crisis, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has recently developed two toolkits that analyze prescription data to identify patients at risk of opioid misuse or overdose. The toolkits are available in three programming languages…
Providers that provided COVID-19 related care/treatment to uninsured patients may now submit claims for reimbursement to the federal government. The submission portal went live today and will remain open while funds last. Eligible providers that wish to participate are encouraged to register and submit claims as soon as practicable using…
On March 9, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized two rules aimed to promote patient access to their health data. One rule, the Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule, was issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and can be accessed here. The…
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently issued recommendations to re-open certain healthcare facilities that have not been heavily impacted by COVID-19 to provide essential non-COVID-19-related care to patients without COVID-19 symptoms. By way of background, on March 18, 2020, CMS issued recommendations to postpone non-essential elective surgeries…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for certain sterilization systems that could potentially decontaminate up to 4 million N95 respirators or N95-equivalent respirators daily. By way of background, the surge of patients in healthcare facilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic has…
On April 28, 2020, the American Medical Association (AMA) released a series of guidance related to ethics during the COVID-19 pandemic. The AMA released this guidance in response to the ethical challenges many healthcare professionals and organizations are facing caused by the burden COVID-19 is placing on the healthcare industry…
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently updated its guidance regarding COVID-19 and its impact on certain equal employment opportunity laws. The EEOC guidance consists of numerous technical assistance questions and answers pertaining to COVID-19. The update included a question asking whether an employer may administer a COVID-19 test…
On April 26, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that its suspending its Advance Payment Program to Part B Suppliers, effective immediately. Additionally, CMS announced that it is reevaluating the amounts to be paid out under the Accelerated Payment Program. To date, CMS has paid out…
On April 21, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a Notification of Enforcement Discretion (the “Notification”) regarding the provision of telehealth services during the COVID-19 public health emergency in the Federal Register. The Notification codifies guidance previously issued by the HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR)…