COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and Homecare

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 31, 2020)—The Congressional sign-on letter urging The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to delay the competitive bidding program for the home medical equipment (HME) industry in light of the current COVID-19 Public Health Emergency closed with 101 House members endorsing a delay.

PHILADELPHIA (July 28, 2020)—The Pennsylvania Department of Commerce and Economic Development (DCED) has informed the Pennsylvania Association of Medical Suppliers (PAMS) that home medical equipment (HME) providers will now be eligible to receive COVID-19 hazard pay as part of the grant program for frontline workers. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 22, 2020)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Provider Burden Relief Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that the suspension of Medicare fee for server (FFS) audits due to the COVID-19 public health emergency will be lifted beginning Aug. 3, 2020 (see page 1).

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 21, 2020)—The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) is urging the independent National Commission on Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes to ensure that residents of nursing homes have access to hospice care, whether in the form of safe, in-person visits or by telehealth communication.

CHICAGO (July 21, 2020)—Evolution Health, a home health, hospice and infusion therapy provider, has selected Dina’s new Staff Screening and Check-In solution to automate its employee wellness and health screening process. 

Digital health care company Dina is an artificial intelligence-powered care coordination platform that recently expanded its product line to include employee engagement, health screening and remote patient monitoring solutions. 

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (July 15, 2020)—3B Medical announced the launch of its newest member to the Lumin family of disinfection products, the Lumin Wand. The Lumin Wand was developed out of a real need to bring to market a professional-strength product to sanitize surfaces. The Lumin Wand provides consumers and small businesses an easy, fast and chemical free way to disinfect kitchen and bathroom countertops, surfaces, keyboards and phones.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 14, 2020)—The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) joined other health care groups in asking Congress to affirm tax-exempt status for recent relief for healthcare providers, as noted in a late June press release.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 10, 2020)—As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the increased utilization of products directly responding to related respiratory challenges (ventilators, oxygen, sleep equipment, etc.) have the potential to skew state Medicaid programs’ spending and impact rates for the broader range of home medical equipment.

AMSTERDAM (July 9, 2020)—Royal Philips, a provider of health technology, announced the launch of the Philips Respironics Mask Selector, a clinically validated, 3D facial scanning solution that helps providers to fit 9 out of 10 patients with the right mask from the start. The proprietary Mask Selector algorithm offers a novel solution in the shift toward digitization of health care, helping to improve business efficiencies by reducing costs associated with fitting time and mask waste.

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario (July 9, 2020)—PointClickCare, a cloud-based software platform for the senior care market has been selected by the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) to provide de-identified patient data for the Discovery Viral Infection and Respiratory Illness Universal Study (VIRUS) COVID-19 Registry.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 7, 2020)—Newly available relief from the Provider Relief Fund for entities who billed Medicaid/CHIP programs or Medicaid managed care plans was not available for providers who were eligible for the initial tranche of Medicare-based relief, as noted two weeks ago.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 2, 2020)— The Senate cleared legislation to extend the deadline for businesses to apply for coronavirus aid under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), hours before the aid package was set to expire.

The bill passed with unanimous consent, and extends the deadline for applying for PPP loans to Aug. 8, 2020. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 30, 2020)—More than 82% of home health providers reported revenue reductions in May, according to a new national survey of home health agencies conducted from early-to-mid June 2020.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 26, 2020)—On May 8, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Servics (CMS) published the second Interim Final Rule (IFR) that provided further relief and clarification for health care providers during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Specifically for DMEPOS, the IFR included the following provisions:

WASHINTON, D.C. (June 25, 2020)—AAHomecare has joined 17 other major health care provider organizations seeking to fix a taxation penalty embedded in the CARES Act. Without congressional action, many providers will lose more than a fifth of the grant funds approved by Congress to help health care providers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Mark Lind

ATLANTA (June 23, 2020)—Many have asked about the look and feel of Medtrade, scheduled for Nov. 2-4, 2020, at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) in Atlanta. If the show goes off as planned, and that’s still the goal, there’s no doubt the vibe will be different. Traditional embraces and handshakes, for example, may be replaced by elbow bumps and waves. There may be widespread mask wearing, so facial recognition could be a bit trickier.

Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News, June 23, 202

After seven days as an inpatient for complications related to heart problems, Glenn Shanoski was initially hesitant when doctors suggested in early April that he could cut his hospital stay short and recover at home — with high-tech 24-hour monitoring and daily visits from medical teams.