CMS Changes Regulations for Hiring Physicians and Housing Patients

As practices face mounting coronavirus (COVID-19) patient numbers, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have issued temporary regulation changes and waivers to reinforce the health care system.

On March 30, CMS released a list of community-based locations where medical systems can begin to treat uninfected patients. It aims to help hospitals make more room for COVID-19 patients in their main facilities, maintain infection control protocols, and conserve personal protective equipment (PPE).

For the same purpose, on April 9 CMS temporarily suspended a number of rules so hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities can easily and quickly hire more frontline medical staff, ensuring they have enough personnel to confront the ongoing pandemic.

Maximum Flexibility and Staffing for the U.S. Health Care System

The temporary waivers affect doctors, nurses, and other clinicians nationwide, and are effective until the federal government lifts its emergency declaration.

Some of the most notable provisions include the fact hospitals are now allowed to transfer uninfected patients to outside facilities such as ambulatory surgery centers, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, hotels, and dormitories. While housing patients outside their facility, hospitals can still test for COVID-19 and receive payments under Medicare. CMS also permits such spaces to be used for quarantine sites.

Additionally, physician-owned hospitals can temporarily increase the number of licensed beds, operating rooms, and procedure rooms. Physician assistants and nurse practitioners may also perform services, such as order tests and medications, that may have previously required a physician’s order.

On top of it all, reporting deadlines are extended and documentation requests are suspended. 

For the full details of CMS’s rule changes, see their official statements on addressing the surge in patients and increasing medical staff.

All of this is part of government-wide efforts to ease the burden on medical workers and patients. Medicare is ensuring patients pay no out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19 testing as well as covering all necessary hospitalizations. The detailed description of the Medicare extensions, including for Telehealth, is available on the Medicare Coronavirus Page.