COVID-19 News, Reports, and Reflections
News:
A Safe Harbor for Members
The newly launched HCMA Foundation Physician Wellness Program is now accessible! The Program provides a safe harbor for members to address life difficulties, especially during this time of uncertainty and challenges due to the ongoing threat of COVID-19, in a confidential and professional environment.
Visit the LifeBridge HCMA Foundation Physician Wellness Program webpage
to learn about the Program and to utilize this exclusive benefit.
Backline | telehealth, secure messaging, and care collaboration
Telehealth visits are helping physicians care for their patients and prevent the spread of COVID-19. The FMA is collaborating with DrFirst to offer physicians easy access to telehealth with Backline
®
. Backline with telehealth is easy to use, doesn’t require any downloads, and protects patients’ health information.
For more information, visit DrFirst
and use the code FMA.
CMS announces accelerated Medicare payments to healthcare providers
In a move to help alleviate financial pressures caused by COVID-19 disruptions, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will offer accelerated and advanced Medicare program payments to providers and suppliers. CMS Administrator Seema Verma stated, “With our nation’s health care providers on the front lines in the fight against COVID-19, dollars and cents shouldn’t be adding to their worries. Unfortunately, the major disruptions to the healthcare system caused by COVID-19 are a significant financial burden on providers. Today’s action will ensure that they have the resources they need to maintain their all-important focus on patient care during the pandemic.”
Read more from FierceHealthcare
.
Physicians urge Trump Administration to cover expenses during COVID-19 crisis
The American Medical Association (AMA) and state medical societies across the nation recently
sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
urging the agency to cover the expenses for every physician, nurse practitioner and physician assistant enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid. "Physicians are continuing to put their patients’ needs first to combat this unprecedented public health emergency," the groups wrote. "We urge you to support them against financial peril while they put their lives and businesses at risk." The consensus is that these groups are eligible for funding under the $2 trillion stimulus package, the CARES Act.
Read more from FierceHealthcare
.
Tue, Apr 14, 2020 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT
Attorney Susan St. John will present this live webinar for attendees focused on telemedicine/telehealth. She will incorporate the latest rules and temporary waivers from CMS, as well as provide a refresh on basics topics like setup and billing for services.
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Reports:
Protect yourself from COVID-19 fraud schemes
- Don’t open attachments or click links within emails you don’t recognize.
- Don’t provide your username, password, DOB, Social Security number or financial data in response to an email or robocall.
- Always verify the web address of legitimate websites and manually type them into your browser.
- Check for misspellings or wrong domains within a link (for example, an address that should end in “.gov” ends in “.com” instead.
Visit
www.ic3.gov
to find more information, report suspicious activity, or to file a complaint if you believe you are the victim of an Internet scam or cybercrime
CMS Issues
Recommendations
on
Non-Emergent, Elective Medical Services and Treatment.
CMS has released a video providing answers to common questions about the
Medicare telehealth services
benefit. CMS is expanding this benefit on a temporary and emergency basis under the 1135 waiver authority and Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act:
Video
Lessons from The Front Lines: COVID-19
On April 3, CMS Administrator Seema Verma, Deborah Birx, MD, White House Coronavirus Task Force, and officials from the FDA, CDC, and FEMA participated in a call on COVID-19 Flexibilities. Several physician guests on the front lines presented best practices from their COVID-19 experiences. You can listen to the conversation
here
.
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Reflections:
THANK YOU HEALTHCARE WORKERS!
Full Circle PR, HCMA's Benefit Provider for marketing and public relations, has created a Go-Fund-Me campaign to show appreciation to our physicians and all local health care workers. You can help "Paint Tampa Bay" with yard signs showing community support for our healthcare workers! The proceeds will go to locally owned restaurants to provide meals to the healthcare workers in the Tampa Bay area
.
Click here for more information and to donate.
How a detailed staff inventory can help meet the COVID-19 demand safely
by Martin Makary MD, MPH, Editor-in-Chief,
MedPage Today
April 6, 2020
Physician’s revelations from the sidelines of the COVID-19 pandemic
Jill Wener, M.D., an internal medicine physician, has been donating her services to work with physicians on COVID-19-related stress issues. In this article, she shares the eye-opening realizations she has learned from these amazing physicians during this crisis.
Read
more from KevinMD
.
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As we monitor reports and recommendations from the Florida Department of Health (DOH) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) please visit
www.hcma.net
for updated information.
You can also contact the DOH call center, available 24/7 at +1 (866) 779-6121 or email
COVID-19@flhealth.gov
.
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