On January 12, 2022, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) sent a letter to United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, requesting that he extend the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) for another 90 days. Failure to extend the PHE would terminate many waivers, including Medicare telehealth flexibilities. The PHE also allows states and counties to waive certain requirements, if they have issued their own emergencies, and requires states to not drop patients from Medicaid rolls.
MGMA Letter
In the letter from Anders Gilberg, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at MGMA, notes that medical groups acted quickly in 2020 to pivot from in-person appointments to virtual ones, as soon as the telehealth waivers went into effect. The pivot from in-person to telemedicine involved “significant investments in infrastructure as well as changes in workflows.” MGMA stated that if the telemedicine flexibilities were to end now, it would be “detrimental to patient access and care, especially at a time when the Omicron variant is wreaking havoc on our healthcare system.” The letter cited a recent poll taken of MGMA members, which noted that amid the Omicron surge, almost half of the members shifted back to more telehealth visits, with safety being the primary driver of the shift.
MGMA also noted that it “remains committed to promoting policies that enhance the ability of our members to provide high quality, cost-effective care to the millions of patients they serve routinely, and to the emergency cases they are called upon to serve during this pandemic.”
American Hospital Association
The American Hospital Association (AHA) also wrote a letter to Secretary Becerra, requesting that the PHE be extended again. In its letter, AHA notes that the extension is “necessary so health care providers can continue to offer the most efficient and effective care possible during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, these declarations are necessary to ensure continuation of the critical 1135 waivers and Medicaid coverage flexibilities.”
AHA also sent a separate letter to President Joe Biden, asking him to extend the national emergency concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, under the National Emergencies Act. The national emergency is currently set to expire March 1, 2022.
Public Health Emergency Extended
Secretary Becerra did, on January 14, 2022, renew the public health emergency as initially determined on January 31, 2020. The original public health emergency notes that a public health emergency exists “as a result of confirmed cases of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCOV).”
The public health emergency has been renewed on April 21, 2020, July 23, 2020, October 2, 2020, and January 7, 2021, April 15, 2021, July 20, 2021, and October 18, 2021.