State Medicaid program accounting for hospital uncompensated care when calculating hospital-specific Medicaid disproportionate share limits is the subject of new guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

In the guidance, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services explains that because of several court rulings, states can decide for themselves whether to offset third-party payer payments from costs in their Medicaid DSH calculations for periods prior to June 2, 2017 but that beginning with that date,  CMS will enforce its own interpretation of the policy.

In new guidance, CMS presents two methodologies for accounting for its mid-year policy change and reminds stakeholders about its new methodology for calculations after June 2, 2017.  Learn more from this Medicaid notice and from its accompanying CMS informational bulletin “Treatment of Third Party Payers (TPP) in Calculating Uncompensated Care Costs (UCC).”…

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 27.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

• CMS has provided new guidance on completing Medicare reports: specifically, how providers should report Provider Relief Fund payments, uninsured charges reimbursed through the uninsured program administered by HHS’s Health Resources and Services Administration, and Small Business Administration loan forgiveness amounts.  The new information can be found in CMS’s updated COVID-19 FAQ on Medicare fee-for-service billing, in questions 2 through 8 on pages 99-102.
• The Families First Coronavirus Response Act waives cost-sharing under Medicare Part B (coinsurance and deductible amounts) for COVID-19 testing-related services through the end of the public health emergency. CMS provided guidance in April on how to code for testing-related services and has updated that guidance in a revised version of the MLN Matters article “Medicare Fee-For-Service Response to the Public Health Emergency on the Coronavirus (COVID-19)” with information about the use of HCPCS codes.
• CMS has posted guidance for implementing its new testing requirements for nursing homes and data reporting requirements for laboratories; this guidance was promised when the agency announced that it would institute new requirements but did

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26.

Provider Relief Fund

• The deadline to apply for General Distribution Phase 2 Provider Relief Funds for Medicaid, CHIP, dental, and certain Medicare providers, previously this Friday, August 28, has been extended to September 13.  Entities that received payments from the initial $30 million distribution and the subsequent $20 million distribution are eligible to apply for additional funding if those payments do not equal at least two percent of their annual net patient revenue.  Go here for information about the extension of the application deadline and about eligibility and how to apply.​

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

• CMS has published an interim final rule with a comment period that imposes new data reporting and testing requirements on hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care providers and has implications for a variety of Medicare programs.
  • Hospitals will be required to report daily on their number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients, their number of unoccupied ICU beds, and their current supplies of personal protective equipment and ventilators; other reporting measures may also be added at CMS’s discretion. Meeting testing requirements will be a condition

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Monday, August 24.

Provider Relief Fund:  A Reminder

The deadline to apply for General Distribution Phase 2 Provider Relief Funds for Medicaid, CHIP, dental, and certain Medicare providers is this Friday, August 28.  Entities that received payments from the initial $30 million distribution and the subsequent $20 million distribution are eligible to apply for additional funding if those payments do not equal at least two percent of their annual net patient revenue.  Go here for information about eligibility and how to apply.​

Department of Health and Human Services

HHS has posted a notice that the FDA must permit the use of certain types of laboratory-developed tests, including diagnostic tests for COVID-19, without the agency’s review and approval of those tests’ efficacy.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

CMS has issued an informational bulletin on Medicare reimbursement strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in nursing facilities. See CMS’s news release about the informational bulletin here and go here to see the bulletin itself.

Food and Drug Administration

• The FDA has issued emergency use authorization (EUA) for the use of convalescent plasma for treating COVID-19.
• The FDA has

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 3:00 p.m. on Friday, August 21.

 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

• CMS had updated its COVID-19 emergency declaration blanket waivers and flexibilities for health care providers. Among those flexibilities, CMS has postponed the September 1, 2020 deadline to submit wage index reclassification applications to the Medicare geographic classification review board  due to COVID-19. The deadline has been pushed back until 15 days after the public display date of the FY 2021 IPPS/LTCH final rule by the Office of the Federal Register. See page 10 for details.

• CMS has updated its memorandum on key components for continued COVID-19 management in dialysis facilities. This update clarifies CMS guidance on dialysis patients residing in long-term care facilities, home dialysis services, and essential procedures for dialysis patients.
• View checklist for dialysis facilities here.

Food and Drug Administration

• The FDA has issued emergency use authorization (EUA) for emergency use of a commercial test to detect nucleocapsid protein antigen to COVID-19 directly from nasal swab specimens collected from individuals who are suspected of COVID-19 by their health care provider within the first 12 days of the onset of symptoms.