CMS issues new guidance to address facemask shortages

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) this week issued a memorandum to align CMS policies with recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration regarding personal protective equipment related to the coronavirus. This came as the World Health Organization declared the situation a pandemic and the American Hospital Association asked the Trump administration to declare a national emergency. The guidance temporarily broadens the range of face masks health care workers can use in situations where COVID-19 or other respiratory illness is a factor. The change is an effort to ensure health care providers have the supplies they need to treat patients without exposing themselves or others to the virus. (CMS news release, 3/10/20)