Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is reminding Pennsylvanians who qualify to apply for housing-related financial assistance through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency after applications are made available on June 29.

Pennsylvania renters and homeowners who were affected by the coronavirus-related economic slowdown can file the applications for rent and mortgage relief, made available through $175 million from the federal CARES Act.

Fetterman chairs Governor Wolf’s Task Force on Health Disparity, which has identified housing insecurity as a top concern among the state’s marginalized populations.

Applications will be available by clicking on a red CARES banner on the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency’s website at www.PHFA.org. Applications for both rental and mortgage assistance will be accepted starting July 6.

The agency’s toll-free call center at 1-855-U-Are-Home (827-3466) will be available weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to assist the public and help with questions about the programs. Callers should listen for the prompt mentioning CARES assistance for renters and homeowners.

Renters who qualify may receive assistance equal to 100% of their monthly rent up to $750 a month for a maximum of six months of assistance for the time period between March 1 and November 30, 2020.

The assistance available for homeowners can be up to $1,000 a month for a maximum period of six months.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced that beginning June 30, 2020, small businesses across Pennsylvania can apply for grants to offset lost revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shutdown order.

The COVID-19 Relief Statewide Small Business Assistance program, announced earlier this month, will provide $225 million in grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 to eligible businesses through Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding.

On June 30, eligible businesses may begin applying for the COVID-19 Relief Statewide Small Business Assistance program here.

The first application window will remain open for ten days. Applications will continue to be accepted after 10 business days but will be considered for future rounds of funding, as this is not a first-come, first-served program. Applications will be prioritized and selected for funding based on the program criteria.

The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) will distribute the funds to the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which will then administer the funding in the form of grants.

DCED Secretary Dennis Davin joined state Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa, Senator Vincent Hughes, Senator John Blake, Representative Jordan Harris, Mark Masterson of Northside Community Development Fund, Leslie Benoliel of Entrepreneur Works, Jim Burnett of West Philadelphia Financial Services, and Dan Betancourt from the Community First Fund at a virtual press conference to announce the opening of the first of four application windows.

Eligible businesses will be able to use the grants to cover operating expenses during the shutdown and transition to re-opening, and for technical assistance including training and guidance for business owners as they stabilize and relaunch their businesses.

The funds will be available through three programs:

• $100 million for the Main Street Business Revitalization Program for small businesses that experienced loss as a result of the governor’s March 19, 2020 order relating to the closure of all non-life-sustaining businesses and have or will incur costs to adapt to new business operations related to COVID-19;
• $100 million for the Historically Disadvantaged Business Revitalization Program for small businesses that experienced loss as a result of the business closure order, have or will incur costs to adapt to new business operations related to COVID-19, and in which socially and economically disadvantaged individuals own at least a 51 percent interest and also control management and daily business operations.
• $25 million for the Loan Payment Deferment and Loss Reserve Program, which will allow the CDFIs the opportunity to offer forbearance and payment relief for existing portfolio businesses that are struggling due to the impact of COVID, as well as shore up the financial position of the CDFIs that are experiencing significant increased defaults in their existing loan portfolios.

This project is financed by a grant from the federal Department of U.S. Treasury, under the administration of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania CDFI Network. The PA CDFI Network is a group of 17 PA-based community development financial institutions that primarily provide financing options for small businesses.

More information about the COVID-19 Relief Statewide Small Business Assistance program can be found on DCED’s website.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced plans to end the emergency blanket waiver requiring all nursing homes to resume submitting staffing data through the Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) system by August 14, 2020. The PBJ system allows CMS to collect nursing home staffing information which impacts the quality of care residents receive. The blanket waiver was intended to temporarily allow the agency to concentrate efforts on combating COVID-19 and reduce administrative burden on nursing homes so they could focus on patient health and safety during this public health emergency.

The memorandum released also provides updates related to staffing and quality measures used on the Nursing Home Compare website and the Five Star Rating System.

To view the memorandum to states and nursing home stakeholders, visit: https://www.cms.gov/medicareprovider-enrollment-and-certificationsurveycertificationgeninfopolicy-and-memos-states-and/changes-staffing-information-and-quality-measures-posted-nursing-home-compare-website-and-five-star

Multiple research studies indicate the efficacy of mask-wearing to protect against the spread of COVID-19. Mask-wearing also has been called altruistic, a way to increase our freedoms, and a simple kindness. Today, Governor Tom Wolf’s call to wear masks has been endorsed by Pennsylvania businesses that see mask-wearing as vital to protecting customers, employees, communities and their bottom lines.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine made mask-wearing a requirement of businesses with in-person operations via the secretary’s order that grants her this authority granted by law.

The governor and secretary of Health’s business guidance centered around reopening includes the mask-wearing requirement. The guidance states that businesses must “Require all customers to wear masks while on the premises. Businesses that provide medication, medical supplies or groceries must provide an alternate, no contact, means of delivering goods for customers who cannot wear a mask. However, individuals who cannot wear a mask due to a medical condition (including children under the age of 2 years per CDC guidance) may enter the premises and are not required to provide documentation of such medical condition.”

USDA’s Farm Service Agency will now accept applications for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) through an online portal, expanding the options available to producers to apply for this program, which helps offset price declines and additional marketing costs because of the coronavirus pandemic. FSA is also leveraging commercial document storage and e-signature solutions to enable producers to work with local service center staff to complete their applications from home.

Through the portal, producers with secure USDA login credentials—known as eAuthentication—can certify eligible commodities online, digitally sign applications and submit directly to the local USDA Service Center. Producers who do not have an eAuthentication account can learn more and begin the enrollment process at farmers.gov/sign-in. Currently, the digital application is only available to sole proprietors or single-member business entities.

USDA has several other options for producers to complete and submit their CFAP applications. These include:

• Downloading the AD-3114 application form from farmers.gov/cfap and manually completing the form to submit to the local USDA Service Center by mail, electronically or by hand delivery to an office drop box. In some limited cases, the office may be open for in-person business by appointment. Visit farmers.gov/coronavirus/service-center-status to check the status of your local office.
• Completing the application form using our CFAP Application Generator and Payment Calculator found at farmers.gov/cfap. This Excel workbook allows customers to input information specific to their operation to determine estimated payments and populate the application form, which can be printed, and then signed and submitted to their local USDA Service Center.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf sent a letter to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue urging the USDA to extend waivers granted to provide states for longer than a month at a time to preserve flexibility they need to ensure the uninterrupted and safe administration of public benefits during the COVID-19 public health crisis. The flexibilities granted by waivers from the USDA specifically related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) reduce the need for in-person interactions between Department of Human Service (DHS) staff and current and potential clients, keeping both safer from COVID-19 while allowing DHS to continue to meet needs of Pennsylvanians during this period of economic uncertainty.

Numerous waivers previously granted by the USDA for the SNAP program were set to expire on June 30. Thus far, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) has been granted a one-month extension for the following waivers:

• Elimination of Face-to-Face and Quality Control Interviews: Under normal circumstances, a face-to-face interview must be conducted to determine benefit eligibility and at random for quality control processes. Due to COVID-19, these waivers allows states to perform interviews over the phone to accommodate social distancing and keep DHS staff and clients safe while ensuring continuity of benefits and eligibility determinations.
• Extension of Fair Hearing and Administrative Disqualification Hearings Timeframes: These waivers help Pennsylvania remain in compliance with SNAP regulations by granting DHS staff more time to conduct appeals and disqualification hearings. DHS’ Bureau of Hearings and Appeals is currently operating under a blended on-site and telework model, but there is currently a backlog of cases being worked through from when the stay at home order first began in March. Without these waivers, Pennsylvania would be out of compliance with federal regulations.
• Temporary Suspension of Claims Collections: This waiver allows Pennsylvania’s Office of Inspector General to pause recoupment if SNAP benefits are overpaid. Without this waiver, SNAP households with a previous overpayment would receive less benefits during the COVID-19 health emergency and would have complicated households’ ability to receive emergency SNAP payments. Given current economic uncertainty, the Wolf Administration would like to continue this temporary pause to prevent further strain on households until circumstances improve.

These waivers are set to expire on July 31, 2020, but Pennsylvania is requesting a longer term, 90-day extension. Waiver extensions of up to 90 days, instead of the current 30 days, would allow for greater predictability and efficiency in DHS operations, as the certainty would eliminate the need to reapply for waivers each month and prepare processes for changes necessary if waivers are not granted.

DHS has also requested wavier extensions to extend SNAP certification periods so current recipients do not have to submit additional paperwork in order to maintain benefits, and to adjust interview requirements, which can slow issuance of benefits and increase rates of people churning off and back on to SNAP. These waivers are also set to expire on June 30.

Governor Wolf also encouraged the USDA to continue to allow states to extend emergency SNAP allotments to current SNAP households. These payments, which are authorized under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, grant an additional payment to SNAP households that do not receive the maximum monthly benefit for their household size to bring these households to the monthly maximum.

Pennsylvania was approved for this benefit for July, but states lose the authority to issue the supplemental payments if the federal or state disaster declarations are rescinded. Without this, Pennsylvania would lose $100 million per month in additional federal funds that get returned to grocers, farmers markets, and other small businesses in local economies, and SNAP households would receive only the normal benefit amount when many counties still experiencing economic challenges as well as increases in the cost of groceries.

Governor Wolf also urged Secretary Perdue and the USDA to recognize the important role the SNAP program plays in helping more than 1.9 million Pennsylvanians avoid going hungry, which can have adverse effects on a person’s health and well-being. Because SNAP primarily serves populations like the elderly and low-income communities that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, removing flexibilities that could potentially remove people from the program would be another way of directing support away from vulnerable Pennsylvanians.

Read the full letter here.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf noted that research confirms the importance of wearing masks to stop the spread of COVID-19 and that Pennsylvanians are required to wear masks when entering any business in all counties in both yellow and green phases of reopening.

The mask requirement is part of Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel’s Levine’s order, “Directing Public Health Safety Measures for Businesses Permitted to Maintain In-person Operations,” which pertains to all counties regardless of the phase of reopening. The order requires businesses to enforce mask-wearing unless someone has an underlying health condition that prevents them from wearing a mask. Children two or younger are not required to wear masks.

According to a recent study in the Institute of Physics, wearing simple medical masks or improvised facial coverings reduces community exposures from asymptomatic, but unknowingly infectious, individuals.

The study concludes that while people may perceive them to be ineffective or burdensome to wear, “wearing some form of exhaled barrier (mask) out in public during pathogen outbreaks is an altruistic act serving not only as a form of enhanced cough or sneeze etiquette, but also to reduce the aerosols emitted from normal breathing or when talking. Without daily testing, nobody can be certain that they are not an asymptotic disease vector. Scientifically, this is a positive step towards helping combat the current COVID-19 pandemic.”

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams took to twitter on Sunday to advise that mask-wearing is contributing to and not infringing on freedom, tweeting in part, “Some feel face coverings infringe on their freedom of choice- but if more wear them, we’ll have MORE freedom to go out.”

In addition to mask wearing, Gov. Wolf and Sec. of Health Dr. Rachel Levine have advised that robust testing and contact tracing in green counties are keys to safe, phased reopening

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf is thanking food banks, farmers, volunteers and others across the state for helping to feed Pennsylvania families during the pandemic. Today, the governor visited the York County Food Bank’s East York Emergency Food Hub, which provides groceries to approximately 2,000 families each Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The York County Food Bank has provided 2.4 million meals and volunteers donated more than 4,000 hours at drive-thru, walk-thru and pop-up distribution at locations throughout the county since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

The Wolf Administration has invested in several initiatives to address food insecurity, including $50 million through the USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box program to purchase surplus milk and other dairy products, chicken, pork and fresh produce from Pennsylvania farmers who lost markets for their products because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and $40 million in funding through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to support Pennsylvania’s dairy industry and food security programs, following months of uncertainty and loss from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Specifically, $15 million will provide an opportunity for dairy farmers to receive direct relief payments and $5 million will go to reimburse farmers donating dairy products through the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System (PASS). This Department of Agriculture program helps food producers donate safe food to food banks and be reimbursed for harvesting, processing, packaging and transporting costs of donated food.

An additional $15 million will be used for cash grants to counties for the purchase and distribution of food to low income individuals through the State Food Purchase Program and $5 million will go to the PASS program to reimburse the agricultural industry for the costs involved in harvesting, processing, packaging and transporting food that they donate to the charitable food system.

Visitors to food banks can get groceries through June 25 without providing financial eligibility under the Disaster Household Distribution program, through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). The Department of Agriculture estimates that in 2020, $80 million in food will be distributed through Pennsylvania’s charitable food system in all 67 counties, using the state’s allocation of federal TEFAP funds. More food security resources are available here.

Under the leadership of President Trump, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is calling for a renewed national commitment to value-based care based on Medicare claims data that provides an early snapshot of the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the Medicare population.  The data shows that older Americans and those with chronic health conditions are at the highest risk for COVID-19 and confirms long-understood disparities in health outcomes for racial and ethnic minority groups and among low-income populations.

“The disparities in the data reflect longstanding challenges facing minority communities and low income older adults, many of whom face structural challenges to their health that go far beyond what is traditionally considered ‘medical’,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “Now more than ever, it is clear that our fee-for-service system is insufficient for the most vulnerable Americans because it limits payment to what goes on inside a doctor’s office. The transition to a value-based system has never been so urgent. When implemented effectively, it encourages clinicians to care for the whole person and address the social risk factors that are so critical for our beneficiaries’ quality of life.”

The data released today includes the total number of reported COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries between January 1 and May 16, 2020. The snapshot breaks down COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations for Medicare beneficiaries by state, race/ethnicity, age, gender, dual eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid, and urban/rural locations. The new data show that more than 325,000 Medicare beneficiaries had a diagnosis of COVID-19 between January 1 and May 16, 2020. This translates to 518 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries. The data also indicate that nearly 110,000 Medicare beneficiaries were hospitalized for COVID-19-related treatment, which equals 175 COVID-19 hospitalizations per 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries.

Blacks were hospitalized with COVID-19 at a rate nearly four times higher than whites. The disparities presented in the snapshot go beyond race/ethnicity and suggest the impact of social determinants of health, particularly socio-economic status.

Other key data points:

• End-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients (individuals with chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis) had the highest rate of hospitalization among all Medicare beneficiaries, with 1,341 hospitalizations per 100,000 beneficiaries. Patients with ESRD are also more likely to have chronic comorbidities associated with increased COVID-19 complications and hospitalization, such as diabetes and heart failure.
• The second highest rate was among beneficiaries enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid (also known as “dual eligible”), with 473 hospitalizations per 100,000 beneficiaries.
• Among racial/ethnic groups, Blacks had the highest hospitalization rate, with 465 per 100,000. Hispanics had 258 hospitalizations per 100,000. Asians had 187 per 100,000 and whites had 123 per 100,000.
• Beneficiaries living in rural areas have fewer cases and were hospitalized at a lower rate than those living in urban/suburban areas (57 versus 205 hospitalizations per 100,000).

The snapshot also shows that besides higher hospitalization rates, beneficiaries enrolled in both Medicaid and Medicare have a higher infection rate of COVID-19, with 1,406 cases per 100,000 beneficiaries. By comparison, the coronavirus infection rate for beneficiaries enrolled only in Medicare is 325 cases per 100,000. The rate of COVID-19 cases for dual eligible individuals is higher across all age, sex, and race/ethnicity groups. Previous research has shown that these individuals experience high rates of chronic illness, with many having long-term care needs and social risk factors that can lead to poor health outcomes.

Given the complexity of these disparities, any solution requires a multi-sectoral approach that includes federal, state, and local governments, community based organizations, and private industry. One piece of this is the increased implementation of a value-based system that rewards providers for keeping patients healthy and gives consumers the information about disease prevention and outcomes needed to help make healthcare choices on the basis of quality. Additionally, CMS is encouraging states to double down on efforts to protect low income seniors and look at the data and determine what resources are available, both locally and federally, to improve this disparity of health outcomes. CMS has identified a range of operational opportunities for states to improve care for dually eligible individuals and a variety of models that states can participate in that focus on improving the quality and cost of care for individuals who are concurrently enrolled in Medicaid and Medicare.

The Center for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Services is developing guidance for states on new opportunities to adopt innovative, value-based payment design and implement strategies to address social determinants of health for their beneficiaries, including those who are dually-eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. In addition to these ongoing efforts and programs, the CMS Office of Minority Health will be holding a series of listening sessions with key stakeholders responsible for providing care to racial and ethnic minorities. These listening sessions are intended to help refine the ongoing outreach and work by CMS to improve future efforts on this issue.

CMS typically releases Medicare claims information on an annual basis when there are more complete claims and encounter data. However, as part of the agency’s efforts to provide data transparency during the pandemic and ensure the public has this vital information as soon as it is available, CMS is releasing this preliminary data now. The data will be updated on a monthly basis as more claims and encounter records are received. CMS anticipates releasing similar information on Medicaid beneficiaries in the future.

For more information on the Medicare COVID-19 data, visit: https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-systems/preliminary-medicare-covid-19-data-snapshot

For an FAQ on this data release, visit: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/medicare-covid-19-data-snapshot-faqs.pdf

For a blog by CMS Administrator Seema Verma, visit: https://www.cms.gov/blog/medicare-covid-19-data-release-blog