March 31, 2020 4:09 pm Health Policy | Human Resources & Staff Management | Telehealth CMS Temporary Regulatory Waivers CMS yesterday issued a number of temporary regulatory waivers to provide hospitals and other health care providers with flexibility to respond to the COVID-19 health emergency. The changes cover issues such as hospital capacity expansion options, ASCs providing hospital services, ambulance transport, COVID-19 testing locations, workforce support, and telehealth. CMS’s fact sheet for Physicians and Other Clinicians describes many of the changes most relevant to physician practices, including additional Medicare telehealth changes, blanket Stark Law waivers, and changes in supervision requirements. For more details, see CMS’s press release and fact sheet, or review the actual waivers and flexibilities on the CMS website. News & Knowledge All Curi recommendations are based on current CDC criteria at the time of publication. CDC guidance for SARS-CoV-2 infection may, or may not, be adopted by state and local health departments to respond to rapidly changing local circumstances. Providers should always check with their local health department to see if the CDC’s guidance on any given topic has been modified (particularly if more restrictive) from the CDC’s recommended guidelines. Follow this link https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/healthdirectories/index.html for contact information to your state/local health department. If local recommendations vary from those of the CDC, and you are unsure what recommendations to follow, then it is safer to follow the more restrictive guidelines/recommendations.