On January 14, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services released a declaration of renewal of the National Public Health Emergency (PHE) which will be in effect for another 90 days, starting January 16th, ending April 15th. This declaration renews for the 8th time, those changes that have been made as a result of the initial declaration in January 2020, and subsequent renewals on April 21, 2020, July 23, 2020, October 2, 2020, January 7, 2021, April 15, 2021, July 19, 2021 and October 18, 2021.
This declaration was released by HHS Secretary, Xavier Becerra:
For now, the major components used from the waivers in the SNF setting, the Qualifying Hospital Stay (QHS) and Benefit Period Waiver (BPW), are still in play. MLN Matters SE20011, the primary CMS document that has outlined all the SNF changes from the start of the PHE and is updated by CMS regularly, with the last update on September 8th, on pages 12 and 13.
As always, if you have any questions, send them in via the Just Ask Q&A tab.
In Your Corner,
Dolores
Dolores Montero, PT, DPT, RAC-CT, RAC-CTA
SNF Therapy & MDS Resource Team