Coronavirus Daily Update: Verma Responds to Nursing Home Criticism; The Case for a Community-Based Palliative Care Benefit

During this critical time, Home Health Care News remains committed to bringing you all the essential news related to home-based care operations. At the same time, we also recognize the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to our regular content, we’ll continue to highlight industry-related developments and mitigation strategies in this rolling bulletin.

What you need to know from Monday (June 15):

— In case you missed it, CMS Administrator Seema Verma talked about long-term care and the backlash on the agency’s nursing home approach in a recent op-ed. “Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS has kept up a steady drumbeat of guidance and recommendations to nursing homes and other kinds of health care providers based on CDC and CMS COVID-19 investigations and surveys,” Verma wrote.

— HHCN looked at all the regulatory changes that have occurred since the start of the coronavirus, analyzing which changes are likely to stick — and which are likely to go away.

— Federal Reserve officials are calling on Congress to spend more on health care and a variety of areas to offset some of the impact of the coronavirus, according to the Washington Post. “We can’t wait 10 years for an economic recovery to reach everyone,” San Francisco Fed President Mary C. Daly said at a National Press Club event. “Inclusive growth is faster growth — and it will pay for itself in the long run.”

— Efforts have been underway among health care providers, state governments, advocacy groups and payers, among others, to make community-based palliative care more accessible to patients and families. The federal government should also increase the value of community-based palliative by brainstorming an all-inclusive benefit, argues Hospice News. Palliative care is an area many home health providers have targeted for growth, HHCN previously reported.

— The HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) added a pair of new probes into the nation’s nursing homes to its already busy slate of long-term care investigations for the coming year. Skilled Nursing News has the story here.

— Roughly 1.7 billion people around the world — or more than one in five individuals — fall into the “high-risk category” for COVID-19, according to a new modeling study.

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