With End of PHE in Sight, Providers Need to Stay Abreast of Waivers, Experts Advise

McKnight’s Home Care | By Liza Berger & Diane Eastabrook

Telehealth. Home care aide training. Hospice volunteer hours. The COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) initiated waivers for many areas of home health and hospice. As of May 11, according to President Biden this week, the PHE will end, thus summoning the end of many of these flexibilities.
 
While providers have a little more than three months to plan for the change, LeadingAge President & CEO Katie Smith Sloan said her organization still has questions about how the administration plans to transition to a true post-COVID environment.
 
“We are actively reaching out to CMS, HUD, and other agencies to better understand what their plans are for the end of the PHE and preparing for how we can best support members,” Sloan said in a statement.
 
The key now, according to Katie Wehri, director of home Health and hospice regulatory affairs for the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, is for providers to determine the status of the waivers they have been using and act accordingly.
 
“What they do need to do is to take a look at all of the waivers that they have utilized,” she told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse on Tuesday. “If they are still utilizing any of those waivers they need to determine whether this waiver was made permanent … through legislation or regulatory change. If it was not made permanent, what is the plan for tapering off the use of this waiver?”

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