It’s Tuesday and time for your
NCMS Morning Rounds.
June 2, 2020
The NC General Assembly is back in session and the NCMS advocacy staff is busy tracking its work. Keep up-to-date on all the proposals most likely to impact your practice and your patients at our NCMS 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.
Clarification on Provider Relief Fund
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced at the end of May that it had extended the attestation deadline for those health care providers who had received funds through the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund General Distribution of the first $50 billion.
Originally, HHS indicated that those who had received funds needed to accept the HHS Terms and Conditions and submit revenue information to be considered for an additional General Allocation payment by June 3. Subsequently, HHS announced that it had extended the attestation deadline for an additional 45 days, however, the June 3 deadline remains on the Provider Relief Fund website.
The AMA reached out to HHS for clarification on why the website still has a deadline of June 3 when the attestation deadline has been extended. Here is HHS’ response:
Folks will have a total of 90 days to attest. However, they will only have until June 3 to access the application portal to submit their revenue / loss information.
Folks must accept or reject funds in order to enter the application portal. So, if on June 3 folks are still deciding whether to accept funds they have already received, but haven’t yet submitted their tax information to the application portal, they should (1) reject the funds; (2) submit info to the application portal for consideration.
They will be reallocated all General Distribution funds they are owed based on their submitted application, and will then have 90 days to attest or reject.
We have implemented this so that we can have all applications by June 3, and can start rolling out other distributions.
The attestation portal (as opposed to the application portal) will remain open for 90 days. Only the application portal will close on June 3.
This HHS FAQ document about the Provider Relief Fund is updated regularly and may address any questions you have.
NC Bar Offers Help to Health Care Workers
The North Carolina Bar Foundation and the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center have launched the COVID-19 Frontline Health Planning Project to assist healthcare workers and other essential employees who are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pro bono attorneys will provide clients and their families with crucial legal protections by interviewing clients and preparing statutory advance directives remotely.
Two types of documents are being prepared at no cost, and clients can select either or both:
• Health Care Power of Attorney, which allows you to designate a Health Care Agent.
• Living Will, which provides your instructions to your doctors to either withhold or withdraw life-prolonging measures in certain circumstances.
This project is focused on providing services to healthcare workers and other essential workers impacted by COVID-19 who otherwise may not have access to legal services to secure these important documents.
To sign up, click here to access the online client intake form. Email questions to: [email protected]
NCDHHS Seeking COVID-19 Testing, Lab, Tracing Vendors
As part of its response to COVID-19, the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCHHS) is creating a pool of qualified vendors to expand diagnostic and antibody testing including specimen collection and laboratory processing, and contact tracing. The Department is prioritizing working with minority-owned business vendors or vendors who retain a diverse workforce.
All vendor applicants must be able to demonstrate the ability to support focused testing and tracing efforts for historically marginalized populations. African Americans and LatinX/Hispanic communities make up a disproportionate number of North Carolina’s COVID-19 laboratory confirmed cases and deaths due to long standing health inequities that must be addressed proactively as we respond to this pandemic, NCDHHS stated in its announcement of this Request for Qualifications.
The goal is to screen the various applicants in advance, in order to have a ready pool of vendors to rapidly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and for work on specific projects in the future.
Testing and tracing are part of North Carolina’s strategy to responsibly ease restrictions, while slowing the spread of COVID-19 and protecting North Carolinians. Applicants must submit their response to the RFQ by 2 PM on June 9, 2020. Qualified applicants will be notified on June 17, 2020. The RFQ is available here.
Learn more about this initiative.
In the News
Leveraging Payment Reforms for COVID-19 and Beyond: Recommendations for Medicare ACOs and CMS’ Interim Final Rule, Health Affairs, 5-29-20
Learning Opportunity
TODAY, Tuesday, June 2 from 3 to 4 p.m., the NC Division of Public Health’s Injury and Violence Prevention Branch is offering a COVID-19 response webinar on ‘Promising Practices in Health Equity’ focused on sharing promising public health practices to reduce COVID-19 related disparities. Presenters will discuss the actions their cities, which include those in Iowa, Kentucky and Louisiana, have taken to mitigate the disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities. Additionally, speakers will take these ideas a step further and examine how they can be integrated into longer-term strategies for lasting impact that strengthens future responses and advances health equity. Register here.
If you have policies you’d like your NCMS Board of Directors to consider, please complete the Board input form here. Thanks for reading!