CMS Updated Recommendations For Resuming Elective Surgeries And Medical Procedures

Nearly one month after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS") issued guidance recommending that health care providers delay elective surgeries and medical procedures, CMS, on April 19, 2020, issued the first in a series of recommendations on how states and regions with stabilized COVID-19 outbreaks that meet certain criteria can begin reinstituting elective surgeries and medical procedures.

Recognizing that "many areas have a low, or relatively low and stable incidence of COVID-19 and that it is important to be flexible and allow facilities to provide care for patients needing non-emergent, non-COVID-19 healthcare," CMS advises that "it is important to restart care that is currently being postponed, such as certain procedural care (surgeries and procedures), chronic disease care, and, ultimately, preventive care" in states and localities with low COVID-19 rates. The CMS guidance relies on state's passing the "gating criteria" of Phase 1 established by