Additional Federal Guidance on the Public Health Emergency’s Expiration
By Jarrod Fowler, MHA, FMA Director of Healthcare Policy and Innovation | Mar. 2, 2023
On Jan. 30, President Biden announced that the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) will expire at the end of the day on May 11, 2023. With this change on the horizon, it would be helpful for physicians to familiarize themselves with the flexibilities that will be permanent after the PHE ends, those that will remain in place through Dec. 31, 2024, due to the passage of last year’s congressional omnibus bill, and which ones will end immediately following the PHE’s expiration.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have published three major fact sheets about how the transition will affect physicians and other Medicare practitioners. Additional resources are likely to be released between now and May 11, including information on prescribing controlled substance through telehealth. (A fact sheet about the DEA’s proposed rule on this topic is accessible through the previous link, but a final rule is not yet available.)

The FMA will keep our members informed as additional guidance is published. Links to three major fact sheets are available below:
  • This fact sheet broadly outlines some of the telehealth changes that will remain the same, be temporarily extended through 2024, or expire at the end of the PHE.
  • CMS has also created a COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Transition Roadmap fact sheet, which includes additional information from HHS regarding how several COVID-19 policies will change between now and the PHE’s expiration.
  • Finally, CMS has created a fact sheet specific to physicians and other clinicians that goes into greater detail about many of the changes that were made during the PHE and how those changes will be affected after May 11.