Health Law Scan

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a table copy of its calendar year 2022 Medicare physician fee schedule proposed rule. The proposed rule is chock full of policy updates concerning telehealth, remote physiologic monitoring (RPM), and new remote therapeutic monitoring codes. Coming on the heels of the significant telehealth waivers put in place during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), CMS proposes to continue the steady expansion of virtual care options with this rule.

We hope you were able to join us for last month's Fast Break on the Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care, which has been a longstanding initiative of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Office of the Inspector General to navigate a path to value-based payment models, culminating in the December 2020 final rules. If not, you missed a conversational session featuring Katie McDermott, Al Shay, and Jake Harper diving a bit deeper into this topic.

Members of our healthcare industry team have published two LawFlashes that may be of particular interest to hospice clients and friends of Health Law Scan, referring to recent Anti-Kickback Safe Harbor Revisions and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.

Powerfully illustrating the efforts of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to transform the US healthcare system to a value-based model, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have finalized rules that will alter critical healthcare fraud and abuse regulations to remove or diminish obstacles to value-based enterprises that meaningfully embrace patient care coordination.

In a stunning move, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has linked reporting and tracking of the incidence and impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease to satisfaction of the Medicare Conditions of Participation (CoPs) for hospitals and critical access hospitals, in spite of the federal about-face that has caused confusion concerning that same reporting since the inception of the pandemic.

Imagine you are the primary caretaker for your 94-year-old terminally ill mother who lives in your home while under hospice care during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on August 3 that aims to expand telehealth access to Medicare beneficiaries beyond the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE) period. The executive order focuses on rural healthcare providers in particular, noting the difficulties patients in rural areas face in obtaining accessible, high-quality healthcare services over the years.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that it intends to resume both prepayment and postpayment medical reviews conducted by the Medicare Administrative Contractors, Supplemental Medical Review Contractors, and Recovery Audit Contractors, including those under the Targeted Probe and Educate program, on August 3, 2020.

Congressional stimulus packages appropriated $175 billion in relief funds under the CARES Act and the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Acts for the benefit of hospitals and other healthcare providers in response to losses incurred due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

CMS posted an expanded set, dated April 29, of Medicare regulatory flexibility measures for hospice organizations related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, supplementing the previous COVID hospice flexibilities guidance from March 29.