Coronavirus update for Wednesday, May 27 as of 2:30 p.m.

NASH Advocacy

• NASH has written to congressional leaders and asked them to include forgiveness for loans provided to hospitals through the CARES Act’s Accelerated and Advance Payment Program in future COVID-19/economic stimulus legislation.  The letter notes how helpful the loans were but also explains that private safety-net hospitals continue to face major financial challenges, including a possible second wave of COVID-19 cases.  See that letter here.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

• CMS has published a fact sheet for state and local governments on how to seek payments from CMS programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP for outpatient services and acute inpatient care provided at alternative care sites established in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Department of Health and Human Services

• ASPR TRACIE, sponsored by HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to provide Technical Resources, Assistance Center, and Information Exchange (TRACIE) services, in collaboration with the HHS/FEMA COVID-19 Healthcare Resilience Task Force, is hosting the webinar “Ensuring Healthcare Safety Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic” to share experiences and lessons learned from innovators in the field. Learn more here.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• The CDC has posted interim guidance with suggested goals and strategies for outpatient and ambulatory care settings in response to the COVID-19 emergency.
• The CDC has updated a number of its contact tracing web pages, including one on contact tracing for COVID-19 and another on investigating COVID-19 cases.

Food and Drug Administration

• The FDA has issued an emergency use authorization for a specific commercial software product for use in intensive care units for the computation of proprietary patient status indices that assist with the early identification of patients who are likely to be diagnosed with respiratory failure or hemodynamic instability as complications from COVID-19.

Federal Funding Opportunities for Hospitals

• NASH has prepared a document that collects and presents in one place the various new federal funding opportunities for hospital resulting from legislation addressing the COVID-19 public health emergency.  Find that document here.

(To receive this daily update directly, sign up for our mailing list at info@safetynetalliance.org.)