On Sunday, April 19th, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new recommendations specifically for communities that are in Phase 1 of the Guidelines for President Trump’s Opening Up America Again and that have low incidence or relatively low and stable incidence of COVID-19 cases. The recommendations are an update to earlier guidance provided by CMS on limiting non-essential surgeries and medical procedures. The new CMS guidelines recommend a gradual transition and encourage health care providers to coordinate with local and state public health officials and to also review the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other supplies, workforce availability, facility readiness, and testing capacity when making the decision to re-start or increase in-person care.

The new CMS recommendations can be found here: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/covid-flexibility-reopen-essential-non-covid-services.pdf

Written By: Clay Countryman