Happy Tuesday! Here is today’s
NCMS Morning Rounds.
June 16, 2020
The NC General Assembly is in session and the NCMS advocacy staff is closely tracking its work. Keep up-to-date on what could impact your practice and your patients at our Legislative blog. The blog is continually updated with behind-the-scenes, quick summaries as the proposed legislation makes its way through the various committees and floor votes. Go to the NCMS Legislative Blog.
Update on Paycheck Protection Program
The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently issued regulations to begin implementation of the new Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Flexibility Act, which was signed into law on June 5. The Act relaxes many of the rules for qualifying for the PPP loan forgiveness that were contained in the original PPP. Read the regulations here.
New PPP flexibilities include:
• Current PPP borrowers can choose to extend the eight-week “covered period” to 24 weeks, or they can keep the original eight-week period. New PPP borrowers will have a 24-week covered period, but the covered period can’t extend beyond Dec. 31, 2020. This flexibility is designed to make it easier for more borrowers to reach full, or almost full, forgiveness.
• The Act changes the threshold for the amount of PPP funds required to be spent on payroll costs to qualify for forgiveness from 75 percent to 60 percent of the loan amount.
• Borrowers can restore their workforce levels and wages to the pre-pandemic levels required for full forgiveness by Dec. 31, a change from the previous deadline of June 30.
• New borrowers now have five years to repay the loan instead of two. Existing PPP loans can be extended up to 5 years if the lender and borrower agree. The interest rate remains at 1 percent.
Learn more about the updated PPP here, where you will also find a new borrower application and a state-by-state listing of lenders.
We Need Health Care Leaders — Like You!
As our country grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to the many other challenges facing our health care system, the need for health care professionals with exemplary leadership skills is growing. The NCMS Foundation’s Kanof Institute for Physician Leadership (KIPL) offers an award-winning array of leadership development programs to help you gain insight into your unique leadership talents and empower you to use them to improve our health care system and the health of your patients.
Currently, the Leadership College and Health Care Leadership and Management (HCLM) programs are accepting applications for class of 2021 scholars. Both programs plan to proceed as usual with in-person sessions in the coming year, but also can be held virtually, if necessary.
Learn more about these valuable opportunities at the KIPL webpage and consider applying for this chance to enhance your understanding of your leadership potential and how to leverage it to the benefit of your larger community.
AMA and CDC Joint Survey on Infection Control
The American Medical Association (AMA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are collaborating on an infection prevention and control training initiative for frontline health care personnel. In order for this training to be as responsive to the needs of physicians as possible, the AMA and CDC are asking you, physicians and PAs, to complete this survey on infection prevention and control training interests, needs and preferences. The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete.
Responses will be used to inform decisions on the development and delivery of training to ensure it best meets your needs. The deadline is 11:59 p.m on June 23, or until the it receives 10,000 responses.
Thank you for your time and all you do to keep your colleagues and patients safe.
In the News
COVID-19 Update: Testing FAQs, the Latest on Vaccine Trials, MedScape, 6-12-20
Learning Opportunity
‘When Will Patients Return and What Role Will Telehealth Play?’ If you have asked yourself these questions, you may be interested in a webinar hosted by NCMS partner Zocdoc next Tuesday, June 23 at 1 p.m. The session will examine what can be learned from patient behavior in states like Georgia and Florida that have already reopened and how can health care practices use this data to plan for recovery? This webinar shares new insights on these questions and more based on Zocdoc patient booking data before, during and after closures – and surprising ways trends differ by location and specialty. Learn more and register.
If you have policies you’d like your NCMS Board of Directors to consider, please complete the Board input form here. Thanks for reading!