The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to release waivers to provide health care organizations with flexibility to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Recently added blanket waivers expand hospitals’ ability to offer long-term care services (swing beds); waive distance requirements, market share and bed requirements for sole community hospitals; waive certain eligibility requirements for Medicare-dependent, small rural hospitals; and update specific life safety code requirements for hospitals, hospice and long-term care facilities. Additionally, pharmacies may now temporarily enroll in Medicare as independent clinical diagnostic laboratories to help address the need for COVID-19 testing. CMS has approved more than 175 requests for state relief in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency developed a toolkit to expedite the application and review of each request and says it has approved these requests in record time. (CMS news release, 5/11/20)
