HHS Renews COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, Regulatory Waivers

HHS has renewed the COVID-19 public health emergency for an additional 90 days past the previous expiration date of April 16, 2022.

The extension will help hospitals and health systems manage ongoing COVID-19-related challenges by preserving regulatory waivers and flexibilities for another three months.

The PHE flexibilities have made it easier for hospitals and health systems to care for patients during the Omicron variant surge and will continue to ease the burden as cases rise again around the country.

Under the PHE, HHS temporarily expanded telehealth coverage for Medicare beneficiaries and allowed more providers to bill Medicare for telehealth services. In addition, HHS implemented Medicare billing policies that offered providers a 20 percent add-on for COVID-19 hospitalizations.

The renewal will also extend flexibilities that waive certain Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and HIPAA requirements, such as staff licensure requirements for practicing in other states, limitations of liability for some providers, and conditions of participation.

Additionally, State Medicaid programs will continue to receive the additional 6.2 percent in federal matching, which helped states cover COVID-19-related costs and provide coverage to vulnerable populations.

HHS first declared a public health emergency on January 31, 2020. Since then, the Department has renewed the declaration nine times, including the most recent announcement. Former HHS Secretary Alex Azar renewed the PHE four times during his time in office, and current HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra has announced five renewals.

Before the recent extension, Becerra had renewed the PHE for an additional 90 days, effective January 16, 2022.

The new extension will push the PHE end date to mid-July. A renewal was expected, as HHS had stated it would provide a 60-day advance notice before lifting the PHE.

Hospitals groups have been very vocal about urging HHS to extend the PHE in the past few months.

In February 2022, the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) sent a letter to Becerra highlighting the impact of the PHE on hospitals and the healthcare industry and encouraging him to renew the declaration.

“Unwinding the complex web of PHE waiver-authorized operations, programs, and procedures – which will have been in place and relied on for more than two years – is a major undertaking that, if rushed, risks destabilizing fragile health care networks that patients rely on for care,” FAH wrote.

Nine hospital groups, including FAH and the American Hospital Association (AHA), sent another letter to HHS in March 2022, asking the government to extend the PHE and accompanying regulatory flexibilities.

The groups noted that health systems were still experiencing high volumes of COVID-19 patients, in addition to treating patients for healthcare needs that were delayed due to the pandemic. The letter also emphasized the challenges that hospital workers continue to face, such as staffing shortages, burnout, and supply chain issues.