As part of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) efforts to keep our stakeholders up to date on the CDC and NIOSH coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response, below is a summary of new information posted this week.

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
Healthcare personnel are essential members of the nation’s workforce and are on the frontlines in the fight against COVID-19. As a result, they may also be at increased risk of getting infected by COVID-19. This week, CDC published the first preliminary description of U.S. data on COVID-19 cases in healthcare personnel in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). CDC found more than 9,200 healthcare workers have been infected with COVID-19. The report describes data on characteristics among healthcare personnel with confirmed COVID-19 that include age, gender, race and ethnicity, where exposures occurred, symptoms, underlying health conditions, and health outcomes, such as hospitalization and death.

Updated Infection Control Guidance for Healthcare Settings
CDC has updated the national COVID-19 infection control guidance for healthcare settings to include the recommendation that all U.S. healthcare facilities put policies into place requiring everyone entering the facility to practice source control, regardless of symptoms. This recommendation is intended to protect healthcare personnel by reducing their risk for exposure as we continue to learn how COVID-19 spreads, particularly from asymptomatic and presymptomatic people.

Conserving and Extending Respirators for Nonhealthcare Sectors
CDC has released interim guidance that offers strategies to conserve, extend, and respond to shortages in the supply of NIOSH-approved filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) used in nonhealthcare worksites, such as manufacturing and construction.

Cleaning and Disinfection Guidance for Nonemergency Transport
People who are known or suspected to have COVID-19 may use nonemergency vehicle services, such as passenger vans, accessible vans, and cars, for transportation to receive essential medical care. CDC has published interim guidance for the cleaning and disinfection of these nonemergency transport vehicles.

For more information, please visit the COVID-19 webpage. To stay up to date on new developments, sign up for the COVID-19 newsletter.

The COVID-19 Federal Rural Resource Guide is a helpful resource published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled by the USDA for rural communities looking for federal funding and partnership opportunities to help address COVID-19. Check out www.usda.gov/coronavirus for more information.

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2020 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Bette Brand today announced that USDA has opened a second application window for funding under the Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) grant program.

This window includes an additional $25 million that Congress recently provided to the program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, USDA is providing this additional window for those who were not able to complete applications prior to the first application deadline for the DLT program. Any money not awarded under the first application window will be made available in addition to the $25 million.

Electronic applications for the second application window may be submitted through grants.gov beginning today and are due no later than July 13, 2020. Paper applications will not be accepted. Additional information on how to apply is now available on grants.gov.

Applicants eligible for DLT grants include most state and local governmental entities, federally recognized tribes, nonprofits, and for-profit businesses.

USDA Rural Development has taken many immediate actions to help rural residents, businesses and communities affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. To learn more about Rural Development’s COVID-19 response, visit www.rd.usda.gov/coronavirus.

USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural areas. For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov.

If you’d like to subscribe to USDA Rural Development updates, visit our GovDelivery subscriber page.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) today encouraged consumers across the state, especially those most vulnerable to social isolation, to understand the resources available through the Lifeline program to help them stay connected to their voice and internet services during these challenging times.

Lifeline is a federal government benefit that provides eligible low-income consumers a monthly discount on their phone or internet bill. The benefit can be used for voice (telephone), Broadband Internet Access Service (or BIAS, usually called internet service), or a combined telephone/internet service product from a landline or wireless provider.

The program provides a $7.25 per household, per month discount on landline or wireless voice service and a $9.25 per household, per month discount on your wireless or landline internet service. The discount appears in the form of a reduction on the service provider’s bill. A service provider may also offer you the minimum Lifeline Program with no additional charges. The rules and amounts of support can change over time.

Consumers or households that apply for Lifeline will be checked to see if they are eligible.  After that, they must certify every year that they are eligible for such support. Currently, in response to the public health emergency associated with the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, the Lifeline program’s recertification and reverification requirements are waived for 60 days. More information on program eligibility, how to apply and recertify is available on the Commission’s website. More information on the federal government’s suspension of their Lifeline requirements is available at the USAC website.

CMS published the updated payment methodologies for Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug plans this week.  Plans can expect an average increase in revenue of 1.66% in calendar year (CY) 2021, and CMS will continue to use the methodology described in the 2021 Advance Notice to derive the benchmark county rates, how the qualifying bonus counties are identified, and the applicability of the Star Ratings. However, rural and urban providers participating in these plans should refer to the Policy and Regulatory Revisions in Response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Interim Final Rule for changes in quality data reporting for 2021 and 2022. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a toolkit that identifies significant telehealth-related changes made by CMS in response to the COVID-19 National Health Emergency. The toolkit provides resources to help long-term care facilities develop a telemedicine program, addressing vendor selection, monitoring patients remotely, and developing documentation tools.

HRSA is temporarily waiving query fees for health care entities to search the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). This waiver supports efforts to mobilize and deploy health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic by reducing costs and expediting credentialing, hiring, privileging, and licensing processes.

The NPDB fee waiver is retroactive from March 1, 2020, through May 31, 2020. The NPDB will issue query credits to reimburse entities that conducted queries (one-time and continuous) between March 1 and today’s announcement.

Learn more. For technical assistance, view the recording from the teleconference or contact the NPDB Customer Service Center.

Here is a summary of recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) actions taken in response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), as part of the ongoing White House Task Force efforts. To keep up with the important work the Task Force is doing in response to COVID-19, click here www.coronavirus.gov. For information specific to CMS, please visit the CMS News Room and Current Emergencies Website. CMS updates these resources on an ongoing basis throughout the day; the information below is current as of April 16, 2020 at 10:15 a.m. ET.

 CMS Increases Medicare Payment for High-Production Coronavirus Lab Tests

CMS announced that Medicare will nearly double payment for certain lab tests that use high-throughput technologies to rapidly diagnose large numbers of COVID-19 cases. This is another action the Trump Administration is taking to rapidly expand COVID-19 testing. Along with the March 30 announcement that Medicare will pay new specimen collection fees for COVID-19 testing, CMS’s actions will expand capability to test more vulnerable populations, like nursing home patients, quickly and provide results faster. Medicare will pay laboratories for the tests at $100 effective April 14, 2020, through the duration of the COVID-19 national emergency.

Press Release

 CMS Implements CARES Act Hospital Payment and Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Waivers

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act increases payment for Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and long-term care hospital (LTCH) inpatient hospital care attributable to COVID-19. CMS provided guidance for IPPS hospitals and LTCHs on how to code claims to receive the higher payment.

The CARES Act also waives the requirement that Medicare Part A fee-for-service patients treated in inpatient rehabilitation facilities receive at least 15 hours of therapy per week.

 MLN Connects Article

Emergency Declaration Waivers Summary

 CMS Approves Additional State Medicaid Waivers and Amendments to Give States Flexibility to Address Coronavirus Pandemic

CMS has approved 52 COVID- related emergency waivers, 31 state amendments, 11 COVID-related Medicaid Disaster Amendments and one CHIP COVID-related Disaster Amendment in record time. States are using a toolkit CMS developed to expedite the application and approval of Medicaid state waivers and State Plan Amendments.

CMS recently approved two additional COVID-related emergency Medicaid waivers, delivering urgent regulatory relief to ensure the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands can quickly and effectively care for their most vulnerable citizens. CMS also approved COVID-related Medicaid Disaster Amendments that bring relief to Arkansas and Rhode Island. These approvals help to ensure that states have the tools they need to combat COVID-19 through a wide variety of state plan flexibilities.  CMS continues to authorize amendments to ensure emergency flexibilities in programs that care for the elderly and people with disabilities, including most recently for Colorado, Louisiana and Nevada. These approved flexibilities support President Trump’s commitment to a COVID-19 response that is locally executed, state managed, and federally supported.

Section 1135 Waivers

1915(c) Waiver Appendix K Amendments

Medicaid State Plan Amendments

CHIP State Plan Amendments

CMS has temporarily waived several Medicare regulations to support hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities during the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.  The new waivers focus on reducing supervision and certification requirements so that practitioners can be hired quickly and perform work to the fullest extent of their licenses.  This Fact Sheet summarizes the new changes in addition to previous waivers that impact all types of providers, including Critical Access Hospitals, Rural Health Clinics, physicians, skilled nursing facilities, and others.

With the U.S. losing over 22 million jobs since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, WalletHub today released updated rankings for the States with the Biggest Increases in Unemployment Due to Coronavirus, along with accompanying videos.

To identify which states’ workforces have been hurt most by COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on increases in unemployment claims. We used this data to rank the most impacted states in both the latest week for which we have data (April 6) and overall since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis (March 16). Below, you can see highlights from the report, along with a WalletHub Q&A.

Increase in Pennsylvania Unemployment Due to Coronavirus (1=Worst, 25=Avg.):

• 1,973.57% Increase in Unemployment Claims (April 2020 vs April 2019)
  • 238,357 the week of April 6, 2020 vs 11,495 the week of April 8, 2019
  • 17th lowest increase in the U.S.
•  773.17% Increase in the Number of Unemployment Claims (April 2020 vs January 2020)
  • 238,357 the week of April 6, 2020 vs 27,298 the week of January 1, 2020
  • 8th lowest increase in the U.S.
• 2,882.22% Increase in Unemployment Claims Since Pandemic Started
  • 1,298,125 between March 16, 2020 and April 6, 2020 vs 45,039 between March 18, 2019 and April 8, 2019
  • 26th highest increase in the U.S.

WalletHub Q&A

How do the job losses from coronavirus compare to those caused by the Great Recession?

“During the Great Recession, a grand total of 8.8 million Americans lost their jobs. The coronavirus pandemic has already claimed 22 million jobs,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst. “While there have been 22.7 million jobs created since the Great Recession, COVID-19 is unfortunately on track to wipe out all of the job gains by the end of this week, according to WalletHub projections.”

How do red states and blue states compare when it comes to increases in unemployment?

“With an average unemployment rank of 24, Red States suffered a higher increase of their unemployment during the coronavirus outbreak than Blue States, which rank 29 on average,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst. “The lower the rank, the higher the increase in initial unemployment claims that state received during the coronavirus pandemic.”

The state with the current largest number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is New York. How has New York’s unemployment rate been affected?

“New York has seen a 783% increase in initial unemployment claims from the beginning of 2020 to the 15^th week,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst. “This is better than the average increase of 1,709%.”

What can states do in order to minimize the rise in their unemployment rates?

“States should aggressively focus on helping the companies in the most need. The federal response will include sending checks to most citizens, even those whose income has not been affected by the coronavirus. States can use a more targeted approach to divert resources to the companies affected the most, thus having maximum impact for the money spent,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst.

To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-biggest-increase-in-unemployment-due-to-coronavirus/72730/