Health System Braces For Financial Hit, Less Flexibility When Covid Emergency Lifts
When the national emergency expires, health care systems and nursing homes will likely face the end to popular measures like higher Medicare reimbursements for covid admissions, some telehealth flexibility, acute hospital care outside of facilities, and others. American patients can also expect big changes, most of which will cost them more.
Modern Healthcare:
What The End Of The COVID Public Health Emergency Means For Healthcare
The COVID-19 pandemic may not be over but—after nearly three-and-a-half years—the federal public health emergency is finally set to end. The healthcare system will have a lot of adapting to do. (Goldman and Devereaux, 1/31)
Politico:
Covid Emergency’s End Will Mean New Costs, Hassles
The White House’s announcement that it will end the Covid-19 public health emergency — and a separate Covid national emergency — on May 11 will mean new costs and more hassles for Americans seeking health care. It will also affect those receiving government nutrition assistance and could make it easier for immigrants to request asylum. (Payne, 1/31)
The Washington Post:
End Of Covid Emergency Injects Uncertainty Into Telehealth
After the Biden administration announced an end to the public health emergency for covid-19 on Monday, psychiatrist Adam Pruett posted a message on Reddit for telehealth clients: Make appointments now, while they still can. A federal emergency declaration in January 2020 waived the requirement for health-care providers to meet patients in person before prescribing tightly regulated drugs known as controlled substances, ranging from opioids to benzodiazepines. That enabled Pruett, who is based in Vermont, to build a nationwide telehealth practice prescribing ketamine as a mental health treatment. Once the emergency declaration expires May 11, that practice could be in legal limbo. (Gilbert, 1/31)
AP:
How Will Life Change Once The COVID-19 Emergency Ends?
COVID-19′s arrival rapidly accelerated the use of telehealth, with many providers and hospital systems shifting their delivery of care to a smartphone or computer format. The public health emergency declaration helped hasten that approach because it suspended some of the strict rules that had previously governed telehealth and allowed doctors to bill Medicare for care delivered virtually, encouraging hospital systems to invest more heavily in telehealth systems. Congress has already agreed to extend many of those telehealth flexibilities for Medicare through the end of next year. (Seitz, 1/31)
NBC News:
Costs For Covid Tests, Treatments After Emergency Declarations End
Since early 2022, the Biden administration has required private insurers and Medicare to cover up to eight at-home tests a month. But once the public health emergency lifts, most people with private insurance will most likely have to pay out of pocket for those tests — unless the kits come from the dwindling federal supply, said an author of the two reports, Jennifer Kates, a senior vice president at KFF. (Bendix, 2/1)
Reuters:
Factbox: What Ending The U.S. COVID Health Emergency Means For Your Pocket
Bearing the brunt of the PHE expiration will be the more than 27 million uninsured Americans, mostly adults under the age of 65, who will lose access to free COVID tests, vaccines and treatments. The uninsured rate hit an all time low of 8% in early 2022, according to the latest available government data, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that about another 15 million people - one-third of them children - will lose their health coverage by next year. (Aboulenein, 2/1)
In related news —
The Wall Street Journal:
House Passes GOP Measures To Curtail Government’s Covid-19 Emergency Powers
The House passed two pandemic-related bills Tuesday, as Republicans pushed to roll back Covid-19 emergency powers invoked by the federal government over the past three years. The Pandemic Is Over Act, which would terminate the public-health emergency declared for the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2020, passed 220-210, along party lines. (Eimil, 1/31)
The Washington Post:
For GOP Base, Battles Over Coronavirus Vaccines, Closures Are Still Fiery
For many Americans, the relentless focus on covid seems largely a thing of the past: Far fewer are wearing masks, businesses and schools are mostly open, and many people have learned to live with the occasional threat of contracting the virus. But among activist Republicans, immense anger and resentment persists at government policies aimed at curbing the pandemic, such as vaccine mandates, school closures and mask requirements. And as that anger bubbles up in the newly Republican-controlled House and among potential GOP presidential contenders, it is shaping up as a significant part of the party’s message. (Abutaleb, Roubein and Arnsdorf, 1/31)
