Reminder: Certain CMS COVID Waivers Expire May 7

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Jonathan Lips

Several of the CMS blanket COVID-19 waivers are expiring on May 7.

In a memorandum released last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will terminate several temporary emergency declaration blanket waivers that have provided nursing facilities and other provider types with flexibilities designed to support the COVID response.

CMS has sorted the waivers ending into two groups: one list expires May 7, and another set expires June 6. To assist members in identifying what waivers are being terminated and when, we have developed a CMS Waivers Termination Schedule. 

The waivers expiring May 7 include:

• Permitting the facility to restrict resident groups from meeting in-person
• Allowing physicians to conduct mandatory visits (e.g., 30, 60-day visits) by telehealth instead of in-person
• Allowing physicians to delegate specific tasks to a physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or clinical nurse specialist that the physician typically would be required to do personally
• Permitting facilities to narrow the scope of the QAPI program to focus on adverse events and infection control
• Waiving the discharge planning requirement that facilities assist residents in selecting a post-acute care provider using data, such as standardized patient assessment data, quality measures and resource use
• Modifying the timeframe requirements to allow LTC facilities ten working days to provide a resident's record rather than two working days

When a given waiver expires, the Minnesota Department of Health will survey for that issue using the standard rule that was in place before the waiver was implemented. We encourage members to review QSO-22-15-NH & NLTC & LSC for the complete list of affected waivers and take the steps needed to return to compliance with the reinstated requirements.