The COVID-19 public health emergency officially comes to an end

The Biden administration announced on Monday that the public health emergency (PHE) due to COVID-19 is finally coming to an end. Its final day will be May 11th.

At that time, he had been active for over three years, starting in January 2020.

“In 2020, the Trump administration declared a national and public health emergency due to COVID-19,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement. “They currently expire on March 1 and April 11, respectively. The administration is currently planning to extend the state of emergency until May 11 and then lift both states of emergency on that date. This reduction will be consistent with the administration’s previous obligation to notify at least 60 days prior to PHE termination.”

The state of emergency declared at the federal level allows agencies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide regulatory flexibility.

Several flexibilities have been provided for home healthcare providers. So the end of the PHE will have several ripple effects.

During PHE, agencies were generally able to waive personal requirements for things like onboarding, training, and even certification of home care services. Telehealth flexibility has also been provided, although home health care providers still do not have the ability to bill for these visits as they would with an in-person visit.

Home hospital emergency waiver was also originally tied to PHE. But like some other healthcare-related flexibilities, it was extended by two years after the PHE expired at the end of the year, amounting to a $1.66 trillion spending bill. The bill also allows providers to use telemedicine as a replacement for certain in-person communication requirements through 2024.

While PHE has had a huge and mostly positive impact on both home health care and home and community care in general, it has also caused confusion for providers at times during the pandemic.

Because it has been active for so long, there are now “veteran” home health workers who have not lived a day without the PHE era’s current regulations.

For example, one waiver allowed multiple professional disciplines to provide home hospitalization based on the needs of the patient. This could be continued, but is now hanging by a thread.

“These workers entered the home healthcare system at the same time as rejection,” Cindy Kraft, co-owner and co-founder of consulting firm Kornetti & Krafft Health Care Solutions, told Home Health Care News in July. “What they see as a chore — being a physiotherapist and doing appointments, or being a nurse and not always doing it — can be a bit of a rough wake up call. It’s normal for them, but technically it’s a rejection that will disappear at some point.”

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