The Daily 3: Covid-19

March 17th, 2020

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Intro, then… “As we continue to try and help support your agency through the COVID-19 epidemic, we have a couple of important updates:

• PPE: Any agency that is at a critical place with PPE—defined at 3-4 stockpile—should contact their local Emergency Management Agency (EMA) who is coordinating those resources. We also recommend contacting your local health department as well as reaching out to your other health care partners (SNFs, Docs, and health plans) to ask for assistance. Don’t forget to also reach out to your PPE providers/vendor and place an order even if there is a backorder.
  • Don’t know how to get ahold of your local EMA? We’ve got a link to those agencies below this video to assist you.
• We’re working with the state and federal government to give your agency more flexibility to manage your workforce through better managing plans of care, as well as eliminating all unnecessary visits and instead provide those visits electronically via telemedicine
  • While we’re working with the government on these changes, we need your help! It’s never been a more important time to reach out.
  • That’s why we’re going to be sending all of our advocates a call-to-action later today asking them to call and email Governor DeWine to ask for this assistance.
  • We need anyone who wants to participate who is not already an advocate to text the word “DeWIne” to “52886”. That’s “DeWine” to “52886”
  • You will be prompted to input your information and then be given instruction to email.
  • We also need people to call the governor. Please call Governor DeWine at 614-644-0829 and leave a message if nobody answers.
  • With your help we can ensure we get the important flexibility we need.
• Lastly, we’ve been hearing that some AAA’s have been given guidance that would allow PASSPORT providers to use telemedicine for visits and bill for those services.
  • While we’re working to confirm this ODA, agencies should be cautioned against doing this at this time without written confirmation approving this practice. While this is a unique time, we still have to follow regulations until/unless the government give us that flexibility. Stay tuned for more on that.
  • As a general rule, we’re recommending that agencies go above and beyond to document everything that they’re doing. We know that you have to do what you have to do to serve your patients, please document EVERYTHING your doing so that it can be later justified.
• For additional comments, questions, or concerns please contact Helpdesk at helpdesk@ochch.org. Thank you!