NCDS Updates

The Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 booster shots for people 65 and older and other vulnerable Americans six months after they complete their first two doses, making many Americans eligible to receive the shots now.

While the COVID-19 delta variant continues to fuel outbreaks across the U.S., there is still uncertainty as to what this year’s flu season will bring. To bolster prevention efforts, one-stop clinics offering shots for both illnesses have started to emerge, CNN reported Sept. 21. The latest COVID-19 surge has pushed Idaho to activate crisis standards of care for hospitals and health systems statewide.

When the CDC released its latest round of recommendations regarding seasonal flu vaccines, the agency made one notable update: Flu vaccines and COVID-19 vaccines can now be given simultaneously.

The AMA has released the 2022 Current Procedural Terminology code set, which incorporates a series of 24 vaccine-specific codes that are the model for efficiently reporting and tracking immunizations and administrative services against the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

President Joe Biden has unveiled a new “action plan” plan to confront the COVID-19 surge that’s being driven by the spread of the delta variant. It mandates vaccines for federal workers and contractors and certain health care workers, requires employees at companies with 100 or more workers to be vaccinated or tested weekly, lays the groundwork for a booster shot campaign and recommends that large venues require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test. The plan also makes recommendations on keeping schools open.

The policy is meant to ensure that at-risk patients in smaller settings have the same opportunities as others to receive the vaccination.

The Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) today projected a go-live date for the Next Generation managed care launch for July 1, 2022.

The U.S. will likely offer booster shots for fully vaccinated Americans six months after their last COVID-19 vaccine was administered, instead of the eight-month gap that had been previously announced, a source familiar with the planning process told The Wall Street Journal Aug. 25.

Seventy-two percent of the country’s largest health plans are no longer waiving out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19 treatment, according to research released Aug. 19 by the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker.

Despite this help, the economic impact of COVID-19 still weighs heavily on healthcare providers and practice staff. To ensure a healthy future and help ease the burnout providers and staff contend with, practices must take a hard look at their internal operations and make changes that put them on solid financial footing. A key to this is optimizing the revenue cycle.

The national outlook is worsening quickly, with a fourfold increase in new cases per day over the last month. Hospitalizations and deaths are also growing, but at far lower rates than cases.

Florida, Texas and Missouri accounted for 40 percent of new COVID-19 cases reported nationwide this week, Jeff Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator, said July 22.

The American Medical Association (AMA) raised concern today that Congress seems “indifferent” to the fiscal uncertainty facing the Medicare physician payment system. In a letter to congressional leaders, the AMA pointed out that physician practices face a 9.75 percent cut on January 1.

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 declined to hear an appeal challenging HHS’ site-neutral payment policy, allowing reimbursement cuts to move forward, according to Bloomberg Law.

Young adults are less likely to be vaccinated against Covid-19 than other age groups—and nearly 25% of those between 18 and 39 said they probably or definitely won’t get vaccinated, according to data from CDC.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is releasing revised reporting requirements for recipients of Provider Relief Fund (PRF) payments. This announcement includes expanding the amount of time providers will have to report information, aims to reduce burdens on smaller providers, and extends key deadlines for expending PRF payments for recipients who received payments after June 30, 2020.

Virtual visits are here to stay, but how can medicine measure telehealth’s value to ensure that physicians and other clinicians, patients, payers and society are getting the most possible from the technology?

HHS program reimburses healthcare providers and facilities for testing, treatment, and vaccine administration fees associated with insured patients.

The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically altered the telehealth landscape, pushing providers to adopt or expand connected health platforms and tools to meet the demand for virtual care to replace in-person services.

A two percent cut to Medicare reimbursement will be paused until the end of the year, CMS recently announced. The announcement via the MLN Connects newsletter on April 16th stated that the Medicare sequestration will not be applied to Medicare fee-for-service claims through Dec. 31, 2021, per a new federal law.