Coronavirus update for Tuesday, May 5 as of 3:00 p.m.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

• CMS has updated its FAQ for state Medicaid and CHIP programs.  Among the issues the FAQ addresses are emergency preparedness and response, eligibility and enrollment flexibilities, benefit flexibilities, cost-sharing flexibilities, financing flexibilities, managed care flexibilities, information technology and  data reporting.  A separate document includes only the new questions.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• The CDC has posted guidance for nasal (anterior nasal) specimen collection for COVID-19 diagnostic testing.
• The CDC has updated its interim guidance for collecting, handling, and testing clinical specimens from persons with COVID-19.
• The CDC has updated its strategies for optimizing supplies of personal protective equipment.
• The CDC has posted general guidance for handling bulk-packaged sterile swabs properly for upper respiratory sample collection during the COVID-19 crisis.
• The CDC has posted guidance for proposed use of point-of-care testing platforms for COVID-19.

Food and Drug Administration

• The FDA has updated its policy on the review and approval of diagnostic and antibody tests for COVID-19.  In a commentary titled “Insight Into FDA’s Revised Policy on Antibody Tests for COVID-19,” FDA officials explain the evolution of the agency’s approach to issuing emergency use authorizations for antibody tests.  The new policy itself can be found here.
• The FDA has issued emergency use authorizations (EUA) for two specific commercial diagnostic tests for COVID-19.  See them here and here.

Medicaid Health Plans of America

• Medicaid Health Plans of America, a trade association that represents more than 90 Medicaid managed care plans serving Medicaid beneficiaries in 37 states, has written to leaders of Congress to ask that they increase the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP), the rate at which the federal government matches state Medicaid expenditures, by 12 percent retroactive to January 1, 2020 and through September 30, 2021.  The group also asked Congress to delay or cancel CMS’s Medicaid fiscal accountability regulation (MFAR).

Federal Funding Opportunities for Hospitals

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

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