In Advisory Opinion 22-08, posted on April 27, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) stated that it would not impose sanctions on a federally qualified health center (“FQHC”) that had loaned smartphones to its patients.
On April 7, 2022, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released a memorandum, QSO-22-15, announcing the restoration of certain minimum regulatory requirements that had been waived in response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. CMS will end the waivers in two groups, under two time frames.
On Wednesday, April 6, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law HB 1239, which changes the way nursing homes in Florida are staffed. Under the new law, nursing homes will conduct facility assessments to determine necessary staffing levels, while the amount of mandated daily staffing hours by CNAs has been reduced, and “direct care” provided by certain non-nursing staff can now be included in determining compliance with minimum care mandates.
Governor Kathy Hochul re-instated provisions in the State Public Health Law (Sections 2895-b[3] and 2828[1]). The New York State Department of Health (DOH) later notified nursing home administrators that these two provisions are in “full effect” as of April 1, 2022.
On June 2, 2022, Governor DeSantis signed the Freedom First Budget for State Fiscal Year 2022-2023. The Freedom First Budget (“Budget”) increased the minimum wage for employees of Medicaid providers to at least fifteen $15 dollars an hour. The Budget provided over $600 million in funding to the Agency for Health Care Administration (“AHCA”) for the sole purpose of increasing the minimum wage for employees of Medicaid providers.