CMS has granted additional temporary waivers to combat COVID-19 and ease the regulation burden placed on providers. Please be aware that at the end of the national emergency declaration, many of these provisions and waivers will end.
The most notable changes from the most recent batch:
- Nurse practitioners, in addition to physicians, may now perform some medical exams on Medicare patients at skilled nursing facilities so that patient needs, whether COVID-19 related or not, continue to be met in the face of increased care demands.
- Occupational therapists with home health agencies can now perform initial assessments on certain homebound patients, allowing home health services to start sooner and freeing home-health nurses to do more direct patient care.
- Hospice nurses will be relieved of hospice aide in-service training tasks so they can spend more time with patients.
Click here to view the press release from CMS, and stay tuned for more updates.