CMS Releases Recommendations for Reopening Health Care Facilities

Today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a guide for health systems and patients as they consider their in-person care options while COVID-19 cases decline. During the COVID-19 public health emergency, many health care systems and patients postponed non-emergency, in-person care in order to keep patients and providers safe and to ensure capacity to care for the COVID-19 patients. As the cases of COVID-19 decline, CMS is providing these recommendations to ensure that non-emergency health care resumes safely and that patients receive in-person treatment that may have been postponed. On April 19, 2020, CMS issued Phase 1 recommendations to safely resume in-person care in areas with low incidence of COVID-19 cases. As with these Phase 1 recommendations, decisions to reopen should be consistent with federal, state, and local orders, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance, and in collaboration with state and local public health authorities.