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CMS COVID-19 Emergency Declaration Blanket Waivers for Health Care Providers

In response to the COVID-19 national emergency, CMS released  26-page list of blanket waivers it has issued for hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, critical access hospitals, cancer centers, long-term care hospitals, and long-term care providers, among others.  Specifically for long-term care and SNFs are the following: 

• Waiving the requirement for a 3-day prior hospitalization for coverage of a SNF stay for those who are experiencing dislocation or are otherwise affected by COVID-19
• Relaxing the timeframe requirements for Minimum Data Set assessments and transmission
• Providing relief to LTC facilities on the requirements for submitting staffing state through the Payroll-Based Journal system
• Waiving PASARR for 30 days–after 30 days, patients admitted with a mental illness or intellectual disability should receive the assessment as soon as resources become available
• Waiving physical environment requirements to allow for a non-SNF building to be temporarily certified and available for use as a SNF to provide space for isolation and care of COVID-19+ patients in the regular building while protecting other vulnerable patients, and allowing rooms not normally used as patient rooms
• Waiving the requirement the ensures patients can participate in person in resident group activities due to the need for social distancing
• Relaxing specific requirements for nurse aides, physical and practitioner visits to allow for telehealth, and resident rommates and groupsing
• Waiving some resident transfer and discharge requirements, with specifics around COVID-19

Complete details for long-term care and SNFs appear on pages 9-12 of the full document, downloadable here:

 Covid19-Blanket-Waivers-508C- 2-final 040320_0