BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (April 8, 2020)—The COVID-19 pandemic has shown a spotlight on the importance that home medical equipment (HME) providers play in delivering care to patients in their homes. By allowing patients to remain in their homes, HME providers are freeing up hospital beds for COVID-19 patients and other patients with similarly serious health problems.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 3, 2020)—Humana shared policy changes for health care providers and suppliers to help facilitate patient care during the COVID-19 outbreak. The policies include:
Forcura’s tools for home health agencies include a web-based workflow application focused on handling discharge referrals (whether for in-home care or facilities); tools for getting physician signatures; and a mobile care platform with secure messaging, documentation, wound measurement and live video recording, all integrated with third party electronic health records. Mandeville, who founded the company in 2012, is on the board of the National Association of Home Care & Hospice.
AGAWAM, Massachusetts (April 2, 2020)—dmetrain, the employee education expert for medical equipment providers, is offering a free training course on COVID-19.
The course, which is available online here, will be updated about weekly to stay up with the quickly evolving public health crisis.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 31, 2019)—Monday evening, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an Interim Final Rule (IFR) addressing a range of healthcare issues related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. AAHomecare performed an initial analysis of the IFR that indicates that priority policy recommendations from the HME industry have been included, except for the delay of competitive bidding.
(March 27, 2020)—The limited supply of ventilators is one of the chief concerns facing hospitals as they prepare for more COVID-19 cases. In Italy, where hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients in respiratory failure, doctors have had to make difficult life-or-death decisions about who gets a ventilator and who does not.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 26, 2020)—The Senate passed a $2 trillion stimulus package yesterday with provisions designed to help stabilize the economy and provide direct aid to most individuals and families.
The bill also contains measures related to Medicare HME policy, including:
KIRKLAND, Wash. (March 25, 2020) -- Home health, hospice and homecare providers should prepare to be called on to handle a surge of patients as hospitals are overwhelmed by the coronavirus epidemic, one provider who has been at the forefront of the crisis said Wednesday.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (March 25, 2020) -- As a hospice nurse in Seattle, Diane Speer said giving out hugs to patients and family members was a routine part of home visits.
But in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, she now tells family members to keep their distance.
“There’s no touching hands or handshakes,” said Speer, who works for Renton, Washington-based Providence St. Joseph Health. It’s “time for a virtual hug.”
WASHINGTON, DC (March 24, 2020)--The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced over the weekend a series of relief measures for providers and clinicians when it comes to Medicare quality reporting to ease the strain of COVID-19 response.