Obama declares H1N1 flu to be national emergency / HHS waives certain Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP requirements for H1N1 flu

CAL/AAEM News Service somcaaem at hs.uci.edu
Wed Oct 28 21:48:37 PDT 2009


[cid:image001.gif at 01CA5810.EEC3A280]
October 28, 2009

Obama declares H1N1 flu to be national emergency<http://lists.fiercemarkets.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=69l,19mzq,osy,bjuf,h5q6,c96b,8g3k>
Fierce Healthcare<http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/>

HHS now will be able to give hospitals more leeway in how they handle any incoming surges incoming patients thanks to President Obama's declaration last week that the H1N1 swine flu is a national U.S. emergency. Under the emergency declaration, HHS can make use of provisions in section 1135 of the Social Security Act, which lets HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius waive a wide variety of regulations under Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and EMTALA.

For example, Sebelius can now relax EMTALA rules, which will allow hospitals to engage in rapid patient triage and sorting activities otherwise not allowed.  Her office also can waive EMTALA provisions that would block hospitals from establishing off-site, alternate care facilities, which could be used to treat H1N1 patients, or otherwise relieve emergency department demand.

Hospitals also will be able to request waivers, allowing them to transfer patients more easily between EDs and inpatient wards, releasing them from both EMTALA and HIPAA regs, and allowing flexibility on other requirements (such as Critical Access rules) which affect how long patients can be in a hospital bed on average.

Not only does Obama's announcement help hospitals, it may have done more than any other public step could have to encourage consumers to get the H1N1 vaccination. This weekend, with the emergency announcement in place, members of the public immediately began thronging urgent care centers to request the vaccine. (Whether they will be able to find it in stock is another story.)

To learn more about the declaration:
- read this CDC announcement<http://www.flu.gov/professional/federal/h1n1emergency10242009.html>

October 28, 2009

HHS waives certain Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP requirements for H1N1 flu

The American Hospital Association<http://www.aha.org/>


Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has temporarily waived or modified certain Medicare, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program requirements to help health care providers meet patient needs during the H1N1 flu pandemic. The requirements relate to the Medicare conditions of participation, certification and deadlines; health professional licensure; the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act and privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; physician self-referral; and Medicare Advantage payment limits for out-of-network services. Hospitals can petition<http://www.cms.hhs.gov/H1N1/Downloads/RequestingAWaiver101.pdf> their state survey agency or Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regional office for any of these Section 1135 waivers<http://www.flu.gov/professional/federal/h1n1_1135waiver_10272009.html>, which take effect at 5 p.m. Eastern Time Oct. 29 and will be retroactive to Oct. 23. In addition, CMS yesterday issued guidance<http://www.cms.hhs.gov/H1N1/Downloads/AlternativeCareSiteFactSheet.pdf> on hospital alternative care sites related to payment, conditions of participation and standards of care.



Abid Mogannam &
Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine
If you recently started to receive articles from the CAL/AAEM News Service, we have subscribed CAL/AAEM members and AAEM members living in California to our news service subscriber list. If you are not a member of the California Chapter of AAEM but are interested in joining, please go to our website http://www.calaaem.org and click the "Membership" section.

Contact us at: somcaaem at uci.edu<mailto:somcaaem at uci.edu>

For more articles, visit our archives<http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/>.

To<mailto:somcaaem at uci.edu> unsubscribe<https://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/calaaem> from this list, visit our mail server.

Copyright (C) 2008 The California Chapter of the American Academy of Emergency Physicians All rights reserved.

CAL/AAEM, a nonprofit professional organization for emergency physicians, operates the CAL/AAEM News Service solely as an educational resource for physicians. Dissemination of an article by CAL/AAEM News Service does not imply endorsement, agreement, or recommendation by CAL/AAEM News Service, CAL/AAEM, or AAEM.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/attachments/20091028/641a5105/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 27990 bytes
Desc: image001.gif
Url : http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/attachments/20091028/641a5105/attachment-0001.gif 


More information about the CALAAEM mailing list