Sent to all dialysis facility leadership and disaster contacts in NY State with valid email addresses in CROWNWeb, and all Emergency partners and stakeholders in the Network Service Area.
Expanded Medicare Telehealth Coverage

Today, The Trump Administration announced expanded Medicare telehealth coverage that will enable beneficiaries to receive a wider range of healthcare services from their doctors without having to travel to a healthcare facility. Beginning on March 6, 2020, Medicare—administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)—will temporarily pay clinicians to provide telehealth services for beneficiaries residing across the entire country.  

EXPANSION OF TELEHEALTH WITH 1135 WAIVER: Under this new waiver, Medicare can pay for office, hospital, and other visits furnished via telehealth across the country and including in patient’s places of residence starting March 6, 2020.  A range of providers, such as doctors, nurse practitioners, clinical psychologists, and licensed clinical social workers, will be able to offer telehealth to their patients. Additionally, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) is providing flexibility for healthcare providers to reduce or waive cost-sharing for telehealth visits paid by federal healthcare programs.

NOTE: The new waiver in Section 1135(b) of the Social Security Act explicitly allows the Secretary to authorize use of telephones that have audio and video capabilities for the furnishing of Medicare telehealth services during the COVID-19 PHE. In addition, effective immediately, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will exercise enforcement discretion and waive penalties for HIPAA violations against health care providers that serve patients in good faith through everyday communications technologies, such as FaceTime or Skype, during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency. For more information: link
AdditionalTelehealth Guidance

Telehealth Announcement Fact Sheet link

Frequently Asked Questions on this announcement link

Additional telehealth guidance issued today:

CMS issued additional Medicaid guidance that is intended to assist states in understanding policy options for paying Medicaid providers that use telehealth technology to deliver services.

Medicaid State Plan Fee-for-Service Payments for Services Delivered via Telehealth Guidance link

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a Notification of Enforcement Discretion for telehealth services during the COVID-19 national emergency. The notice describes how OCR will exercise its enforcement discretion to not impose penalties for noncompliance with the regulatory requirements under the HIPAA Rules against covered health care providers in connection with the good faith provision of telehealth during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency.

Notification of Enforcement Discretion for telehealth remote communications during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency link

This guidance, and earlier CMS actions in response to the COVID-19 virus, are 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 visit  www.coronavirus.gov

For information specific to CMS, please visit the Current Emergencies Website. link

Mandatory Reporting of
COVID-19 Impact on Dialysis Facilities
(Persons in under investigation (PUI) and Confirmed Cases)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are requiring through the Kidney Emergency Response Coalition (KCER) that the ERSD Networks track and report daily any COVID-19 impact in dialysis facilities.

At this time, you DO NOT need to report if you have had NO IMPACT.

If you have any patients or staff that are being tested (PUI) or that are unable to access the dialysis facility due to voluntary 14 day isolation, or confirmed COVID-19. Please submit this brief online reporting form:
https://redcap.ipro.org/surveys/?s=XAJLFDJPT8

New York State
Health Commerce System
(NYSHCS)
New York State dialysis providers should be receiving updates from the DOH via the  Health Commerce System . If your facility does not already have an active HC account (for NYPORTS) please see this website for instructions on creating an account: https://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/immunization/information_system/providers/hpn_account_instructions.htm
IPRO ESRD Network of New York
1979 Marcus Ave, Suite 105 Lake Success, NY 10042
Phone:  516-209-5578  · Fax:  516-326-8929
IPRO End-Stage Renal Disease Network of New York, the ESRD Organization for New York, prepared this material under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents presented do not necessarily reflect CMS policy. CMS Contract Number: HHSM-500-2016-00020C.