From Coverage to Care (C2C) has released two new resources focused on coronavirus and health coverage.

Click here to see the new resources: go.cms.gov/c2ccovid19.

C2C’s Coronavirus and Your Health Coverage: Get the Basics talks about how to protect yourself and your family along with an overview on updates from Medicare, the Marketplace, and other information for consumers looking for information on health coverage and staying healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Next, C2C has Stay Safe: Getting the Care You Need, at Home which focuses on how people can stay healthy within their home. This resource gives an overview of telehealth, managing ongoing health conditions, prescriptions, and other tips.

Want to receive updates on From Coverage to Care? Subscribe to the C2C listserv. To learn more or download C2C resources, please visit go.cms.gov/c2c or email CoverageToCare@cms.hhs.gov.

The Penn State Center for Agricultural and Shale Law is presenting a 60-minute webinar on Wednesday, June 3, 2020, from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm, which will synthesize some of the most important agricultural legal developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to assist producers and agricultural employers understand what they need to know. This is anticipated to be the first in a continuing series of webinars as conditions evolve.

The focus of the initial webinar will be on regulatory actions and the legal issues that may ultimately have to play out in courts across the country.

Highlights will include an overview of:

• State-level actions by the Office of the Governor, PDA, DEP, PMMB, L&I, the Pennsylvania General Assembly and others that impact Pennsylvania agricultural operations in this crisis.
• Federal actions by the Executive Branch (the White House, USDA, DOT and others) and the U.S. Congress.
• The potential for invocation of the Defense Production Act re: food production and potential conflicts with state and local government authority.
• Risks and protections surrounding claims of legal liability for COVID-19 transmission; what is the meaning of the various lawsuits covered by the media so far and what are the legal issues to be aware of going forward?

For more information on this webinar, please contact Brook Duer at DHD5103@psu.edu or Jackie Schweichler at JKS251@psu.edu.

As more counties move to yellow and green, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf issued an order to elaborate on the reopening process for green phase counties and guidance on outdoor dining in yellow counties, dining in green counties, and professional sports in yellow counties.

Yellow Phase Outdoor Dining

Beginning June 5, restaurants and retail food service businesses located in counties designated as being in the yellow phase are permitted add dine-in service in outdoor seating areas so long as they strictly adhere to the requirements of the guidance, including maximum occupancy limits:

• Indoor areas, including bar areas, of restaurants and retail food service businesses must be closed to customers except for through-traffic. Non-bar seating in outdoor areas (i.e., tables or counter seats that do not line up to a bar or food service area) may be used for customer seating.
• Customers being served must be seated at a table.

Prohibitions are also included. The following are not permitted:

• Self-service food or drink options, such as buffets, salad bars, condiments, and drink stations.
• Condiments on tables; these must be dispensed by employees upon the request of a customer.
• Reusable menus.
• Refilling food and beverage containers or allowing implements brought in by customers.

Green Phase Dining

Retail food service businesses, including restaurants, and bars located in counties designated as being in the green phase are permitted to provide take-out and delivery sales, as well as dine-in service in both indoor and outdoor seating areas, so long as they strictly adhere to the requirements of the guidance, including maximum occupancy limits:

• Bar seating may be utilized if customers are seated and comply with physical distancing guideline of at least 6 feet or physical barriers between customers. Standing in a bar area will not be permitted.
• A maximum of four customers that have a common relationship may sit together at the bar, while adhering to the physical distancing guidelines or barriers between other customers.

No business is required to conduct in-person operations and should not do so if unable to follow applicable guidance.

Dining guidance provides businesses and employees in the restaurant and retail food service industry with specific details on operations, including following the Guidance for Businesses Permitted to Operate During the COVID-19 Disaster Emergency to Ensure the Safety and Health of Employees and the Public, available here, and provisions specific to mask-wearing, table-spacing, occupancy limits, sanitization, and implementation of a COVID-19 prevention plan, among other provisions to ensure worker and customer safety.

The dining guidance also notes that restaurants and retail food service businesses located in counties designated as being in the red phase are permitted to provide take-out and delivery sales only and may not allow the service or consumption of food or beverages on the premises.

In response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, state and local governments, hospitals, and others are developing alternate care sites to expand capacity and provide needed care to patients. This newly published fact sheet provides state and local governments developing alternate care sites with information on how to seek payments through CMS programs – Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) – for acute inpatient and outpatient care furnished at the site.

Fact Sheet

During the COVID-19 public health emergency, CMS is relaxing billing requirements for a limited number of laboratory tests required for a COVID-19 diagnosis. Any healthcare professional authorized under state law may order these tests. Medicare will pay for these tests without a written order from the treating physician or other practitioner.

• If an order is not written, you do not need to provide the National Provider Identifier (NPI) of the ordering or referring professional on the claim.
• If an order is written, include the NPI of the ordering or referring professional, consistent with current billing guidelines.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is now accepting applications from designated Look-Alikes for the FY 2020 Health Center Program Look-Alikes: Expanding Capacity for Coronavirus Testing (LAL ECT) notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) (HRSA-20-147). The purpose of this funding is to support LALs in expanding their COVID-19 testing capacity. Applications are due in Grants.gov by 11:59 pm on Tuesday, June 2. Emails were sent to each LAL’s Authorizing Official and Project Director with additional information. See the LAL ECT technical assistance (TA) webpage for additional resources and templates.

The PA Department of Human Services issued MA Bulletin 99-20-06 to advise providers of diagnosis coding guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for healthcare encounters related to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). This bulletin applies to all providers enrolled in the Medical Assistance (MA) Program who render services to beneficiaries enrolled in the MA Fee-for-Service (FFS) system. Providers rendering services in the MA managed care delivery system should address any coding or billing related questions to the appropriate managed care organization (MCO). Effective with dates of services on and after April 1, 2020, providers should use the new diagnosis code U07.1, COVID-19. For dates of service beginning February 20, 2020, providers should refer to the CDC interim guidance for conditions related to COVID-19.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a new Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services Informational Bulletin that provides states guidance on how to temporarily modify Medicaid managed care contracts to address the impact of the COVID-19 public health emergency. The guidance provides several options that states can consider adjusting provider payment methodologies and capitation rates within Medicaid managed care contracts while preserving systems of care and access to services for Medicaid beneficiaries.

HRSA wants to emphasize that the weekly survey responses should include data from the past week only, not aggregate data on your health centers’ overall COVID-19 response. HRSA realizes that other parties are interested in this data, and so they recently added maps of the summarized data to their website, to present the information visually.