The January report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) provides an overview of actions taken and offers 13 additional recommendations that include improving the medical supply chain through the Strategic National Stockpile, and better service to older adults in rural areas through the Older Americans Act.

By Elizabeth A. Dobis and David McGranahan, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Health experts identified older age, underlying medical conditions and overall difficulty in accessing medical care as the main factors contributing to worse health outcomes among rural populations.

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By Tim Murphy and Tim Marema

The number of new infections declined 17% in rural America last week, but the number of deaths declined only slightly.
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As part of NIOSH’s efforts to keep our stakeholders up to date on the CDC and NIOSH COVID-19 response, here is a summary of new information available.

• COVID-19 Response Guidance for Businesses and Employers
  CDC recently updated their Guidance for Business and Employers, addressing shortened quarantine options and additional considerations for testing. The updates also clarify information around mask-wearing.
• COVID-19 Checklists for Employers and Employees in Construction
  CDC offers Construction Checklists to share ways employers can protect construction workers, and how these workers can protect themselves, to slow the spread of COVID-19. The checklists are available as an interactive online tool or as a PDF in both English and Spanish.
• Strategies for Optimizing the Supply of Isolation Gowns
  CDC recently updated their Isolation Gown Optimization Strategies, moving the prioritization strategy of gowns from crisis capacity to contingency capacity. The updated information also clarifies the situations where gowns should be prioritized.
• Workplace SARS-CoV-2 Testing: Consent Elements and Disclosures
  This recently updated webpage describes the elements of consent and recommended disclosures necessary to support employee decision-making for participating in workplace-based testing. Workplace testing should not be done without an employee’s consent.
• Easy to Read COVID-19 Safety
  CDC has recently published Easy to Read COVID-19 materials. This information was primarily developed for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and for those who read or listen with understanding below a third-grade level.
• Toolkit for Essential Workers
  A new communication toolkit is available to help employers across various industries provide information about COVID-19 vaccines, increase awareness about vaccination benefits, and address common questions and concerns. The toolkit contains a variety of resources including key messages, FAQs, posters, newsletter content, and more.

Interim List of Categories of Essential Workers Mapped to Standardized Industry Codes and Titles
An interim list is now available to help state, local, tribal, and territorial officials and organizations prepare for the allocation of initially limited COVID-19 vaccine supply. The interim list maps essential industries to corresponding COVID-19 vaccination phases and workforce categories, as recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

As COVID-19 vaccines begin rolling out across the country CMS is taking action to protect the health and safety of our nation’s patients and providers and keeping you updated on the latest COVID-19 resources from HHS, CDC and CMS.

The CDC designed COVID-19 Vaccination Communication Toolkit for Essential Workers    to help employers build confidence in this important new vaccine. The toolkit will help employers across various industries, including child care, educate their workforce about COVID-19 vaccines, raise awareness about the benefits of vaccination, and address common questions and concerns.    The toolkit contains a variety of resources including:

• Key messages,
• An educational slide deck,
• FAQs,
• Posters/flyers,
• Newsletter content,
• A plain language vaccine factsheet (available in several different languages),
• A template letter for employees,
• Social media content, and
• Vaccination sticker templates.

COVID 19 Toolkit for Community Organizations  contains a variety of resources that you can use (active links here

• Introductory letter
• Key Messages
• FAQs
• Slide deck for virtual town halls or other informational meetings within your communities. You can use all or part of the set or also include your own organization’s information.
• Fact Sheets in plain-language and available in several languages
• Newsletter blurb
• Stickers to use once immunized

With information coming from many different sources, CMS has compiled resources and materials to help you share important and relevant information on the COVID- 19 vaccine with the people that you serve. You can find these and more resources on the COVID-19 Partner Resources Page and the HHS COVID Education Campaign page. We look forward to partnering with you to promote vaccine safety and encourage our beneficiaries to get vaccinated when they have the opportunity.

If you are a healthcare provider:

Both the CDC and CMS have useful resources for your practice. Look to CDC for the latest science, vaccine administration information and patient-focused resources.

You can find additional resources on the CDC Resources for Health Care Providers Page.

CMS released aCOVID-19 Provider Toolkit to ensure health care providers have the necessary tools to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The toolkit includes information on:

• How health care providers can enroll in Medicare to bill for administering COVID-19 vaccines
• The COVID-19 vaccine Medicare coding structure;
• The Medicare payment strategy for COVID-19 vaccine administration;
• How health care providers can bill correctly for administering vaccines, including roster and centralized billing;
• Monoclonal antibody infusion for treating COVID-19; and
• New COVID-19 Treatments Add-on Payment (NCTAP).

You can also review the set of COVID-19 FAQs, which has information specific to health care providers who bill Medicare for administering COVID-19 vaccines.

Here’s what else you should know:

• Medicare covers the COVID-19 vaccine, so there will be no cost to your patients with Medicare.  Medicare will reimburse you for administering the vaccine.
• State governments are handling the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Look for updates from your state and local officials as more doses of the vaccine become available for additional priority groups.
• People without health insurance or whose insurance does not provide coverage of the vaccine can also get COVID-19 vaccine at no cost.  Providers administering the vaccine to people without health insurance or whose insurance does not provide coverage of the vaccine can request reimbursement for the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine through the Provider Relief Fund.
• Most professional associations have pages devoted to COVID-19 vaccination.  Your association may have advice tailored to your discipline, specialty and/or location.

How can you help educate your patients?

• You are a trusted source…encourage your patients to get the vaccine when it is available to them.
• Let them know the vaccine is no cost and will help keep them from getting COVID-19. Learn more about the benefits of the vaccine.
• Let them know the vaccine is safe and that safety is a top priority for COVID-19 vaccines.
• Remind them to continue practicing the 3Ws (Wear a Mask, Watch your distance, Wash your hands).

Questions? Please e-mail us: Partnership@cms.hhs.gov

As part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s continuing efforts to protect consumers from potentially dangerous or subpotent hand sanitizers, the agency has placed all alcohol-based hand sanitizers from Mexico on a countrywide import alert to help stop products that appear to be in violation from entering the U.S. until the agency is able to review the products’ safety. Over the course of the ongoing pandemic, the agency has seen a sharp increase in hand sanitizer products from Mexico that were labeled to contain ethanol (also known as ethyl alcohol) but tested positive for methanol contamination. Methanol, or wood alcohol, is a substance that can be toxic when absorbed through the skin and life-threatening when ingested. Methanol is not an acceptable ingredient in hand sanitizer or other drugs.

Click here for more information.

The 117th Congress is underway and the first legislative issue the new Congress and Administration plan to take up is additional COVID-19 relief. At this time, it is unclear what the relief package will include, or what the method for passage will be.