Assisting Rural Providers in Understanding COVID-19 Regulatory Flexibilities

Understanding COVID-19 Regulatory Flexibilities for The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) is sharing news that CMS has developed a new Rural Crosswalk resource to help rural providers understand how temporary COVID-19 regulatory flexibilities could help them combat the pandemic. Key goals of the flexibilities include:

• Expanding the healthcare workforce by removing barriers for health professionals

• Ensuring that local health systems and hospitals have the capabilities to handle a potential COVID-19 surge, including access to expansion sites

• Increasing access to telehealth for Medicare providers and beneficiaries to help patients get the care they need at home

• Expanding in-place testing to allow for more testing at home and within communities

• Providing health systems temporary relief from paperwork, reporting, and audit requirements

The resource details how the flexibilities impact Rural Health Clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, Critical Access Hospitals, Rural Acute Care Prospective Payment System Hospitals, and Medicare-certified Skilled Nursing Facilities.

Find additional rural health resources on the CMS OMH website.

Looking for additional information on COVID-19? Visit this CMS OMH webpage for COVID-19 Federal resources focusing on vulnerable populations: go.cms.gov/omhcovid19 and From Coverage to Care (C2C) COVID-19 resources: go.cms.gov/c2ccovid19.