It’s official: COVID-19 public health emergency to end on May 11

As promised, the White House is giving ample notice—the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) will end on May 11.

In a statement January 30, the White House said it would end the PHE, which has allowed hospitals and other providers a number of compliance and other waivers to help ease the burden on healthcare.

The administration has been warning for some time now that the end of the PHE was near, including a CMS blog post in August talking about “Creating a Roadmap for the End of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.”

The end of the PHE has many impacts, including how much money hospitals get for treating COVID-19 and free testing for the public, both of which will be drawn down substantially. It also means the end of blanket compliance waivers for hospitals and other healthcare providers, including the credentialing-specific 1135 waivers.   

While many hospitals are no longer using those waivers, if they did, CMS and consultants have warned that providers should catch up on documentation or other compliance measures that went undone during the PHE because of a declared waiver.