Home Health & Hospice Week

Enjoy those PHE-affiliated regulatory flexibilities while you can.

On Jan. 11, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra extended the COVID-19 public health emergency for another 90 days. It’s the twelfth extension of the PHE since its retroactive January 2020 advent.

But the clock really is ticking down to PHE’s end, observers speculate. “Senior Biden officials are targeting an end to the emergency designation for COVID as soon as the spring,” Politico reports. That would “mark a major pivot in the country’s battle with the pandemic,” the news outlet notes.

And “scrutiny of the administration’s handling of the PHE is expected to increase as the House Republicans implement their health care oversight agenda,” note attorneys with law firm Akin Gump in their Congressional Health Policy Outlook for 2023. The PHE’s repeated extension is a likely target, they add.

Remember: HHS has pledged to let the public know two months’ ahead of time when it plans to end the declaration. “Everyone is committed to give 60 days’ notice before it comes down,” a senior Biden administration official said of the PHE in a Dec. 14 press call.

That means providers should watch for an announcement in early to mid-February, if the administration is serious about ending the PHE, observers note.

Meanwhile: Home health and hospice providers can look for upcoming guidance on the flexibilities that will continue with the latest extension, according to a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official in the Jan. 11 Open Door Forum for home health and hospice agencies.