Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) News

As many front-line health care workers move beyond the immediate pandemic crisis, now is the time to reflect on the psychological toll, writes Jesse Burgard, a regional chief mental health officer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and AHA Behavioral Health Services Council member.

The Food and Drug Administration added the AustinP51 emergency-use system to its list of ventilator authorized for emergency use in health care settings to treat adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated and expanded its list of people at risk of severe COVID-19 illness, the agency said.

A therapeutic, two-antibody COVID-19 treatment “cocktail” from Regeneron and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority moved to its first clinical trial, the developers earlier this month announced.

The American Medical Association announced a new Current Procedural Terminology code (87426) for reporting antigen testing to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection on medical claims.

AHA urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to temporarily extend certain waivers and make others permanent beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency to allow hospitals to provide better and more cost effective care to their patients and communities.

Expanding access to telehealth services to provide much more patient-centered, convenient care. Creating additional health care workforce capacity and avoiding workforce shortages. Removing barriers for patients and communities to access needed care.

Clinicians participating in the Quality Payment Program Merit-based Incentive Payment System in 2020 whose practice was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 public health emergency may apply for an exception to reweight the MIPS performance categories, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently confirmed that Medicare contractors will not calculate an average length of stay for long-term care hospitals for cost reporting periods that include the COVID-19 public health emergency, which took effect March 1.

Nearly 20 health care provider organizations, including the AHA, urged Congress to enact legislation to clarify that relief funds provided through the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund and other programs as part of the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic are exempt from taxation, and that entities receiving them maintain the tax deductions attributable to these funds.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response June 26 at 1 p.m. ET will host the next webinar in its series ”Securing the Health Sector,” which will focus on “COVID-19 and the Use of Thermal Detection Cameras in the Healthcare Environment.”

The Food and Drug Administration has partnered with the Critical Path Institute and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences to launch the CURE Drug Repurposing Collaboratory, a forum for exchanging clinical practice data to inform potential new uses for existing drugs to treat unmet medical needs, beginning with COVID-19.

The AHA urged Congress to revise the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 in the next COVID-19 relief package to reflect new insights from the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect of recent post-acute care payment system reforms.

As front-line health care workers move beyond the immediate pandemic crisis, now is the time to reflect on the psychological toll, writes Jesse Burgard, a regional chief mental health officer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and AHA Behavioral Health Services Council member. Read more in this blog marking PTSD Awareness month.

The Department of Health and Human Services said its Office of Minority Health will partner with the Morehouse School of Medicine to deliver education and resources on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on racial- and ethnic-minority, rural and socially vulnerable communities.

Hospitalization rates for COVID-19 were nearly four times higher for black, and two times higher for Hispanic, Medicare beneficiaries than for white Medicare beneficiaries, according to data on COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on the administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which featured officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Food and Drug Administration, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Beginning July 6, both traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans will cover diagnostic COVID-19

Clinical laboratories and health care providers should stop using any antibody tests on the Food and Drug Administration’s “removed” test list, evaluate prior results from the test and whether to retest the patient using an FDA-authorized test, the agency said.

A new study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows emergency department visits dropped by 23% for heart attacks, 20% for strokes and 10% for hyperglycemic crises in first 10 weeks after the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration.