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Earlier this week President Joe Biden signed the SAVES LIVES Act into law which allows the VA to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to all Veterans, their spouses and caregivers. This act removed some prior legal limits the VA can provide to Veterans based on health care eligibility and priority groups. Vaccinations will still be priortized based on vaccine availability and Veterans enrolled in VA care.

For more information, read the full press release from the Office of Public and Intergovernmental...

According to a White House press release the Paycheck Protection Program will, for a period of 14 days, only be available to businesses with fewer than 20 employees. The 2-week period is scheduled to begin Wednesday, February 24, and is being implemented in an effort to make sure that these very small businesses do not get excluded from receiving money through the program.

In addition to that 2-week period to focus on very small businesses, other changes being made to the Paycheck Protection...

On Thursday, January 7, 2021, former HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced an extension of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). This PHE was initially declared on January 31, 2020 (with acknowledgement that it has existed since January 27th). Any PHE declaration can only last for 90 days at a time, but can be extended or renewed. It has already been renewed multiple time throughout 2020, and the 90 day extension that occurred in October 2020 was set to expire on or around January 21. There...

VGM, along with the HME State Associations and AAHomecare have been tracking the status of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution by state and whether HME providers are included in early distribution.

Click here to see the data currently collected of how individual states are handing the distribution and whether HME providers are currently able to receive the vaccination.

Please reach out to [email protected] if you have information to share regarding vaccine distribution, that...

The VGM Government Relations team has received several requests for information relative to “where does the HME community stand with regard to vaccine prioritization?”

As each state differs in its prioritization schedule, we are distributing this release in the hope that you may contact, if necessary, on an ongoing basis, the appropriate agency or state department of public health and obtain important information. We recognize you are on the “front line” and are...

This week, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) unveiled a now simpler application and process for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness, especially for loans that were less than $50,000. This new streamlined process makes it easier for both the business that received the loan, as well as the lender that issued it. The SBA and the U.S. Treasury Department continue to look at ways to make this process easier but still prevent fraud and/or misuse...

Providers who applied for and received advanced payments from CMS will now have 1 year to pay back those loans, instead of the 3 months they initially were given to do so. In late March of this year, and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) revised their already existing Accelerated and Advance Payment Program (AAP). This was one of many programs designed to minimize the financial burden that healthcare providers are currently faced with in the...

As we announced last week, HHS has opened up the portal for providers to apply for Phase 3 of the HHS Provider Relief Fund (PRF). Since that initial announcement, HHS has released a few additional details, but there are still some questions that remain unanswered. HHS is hosting a webinar on October 15th  at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. If you register for the webinar, there is a place where you can enter any question(s) that you would like to have answered during the webinar. We encourage you...

On Friday, October 2, 2020,  Alex M. Azar II, Secretary of Health and Human Services, renewed the Public Health Emergency (PHE) that went into effect on January 27, 2020 nationwide. This extension will be effective October 23, 2020. Click here to see the official renewal.

What does this mean for you?

On April 29, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated its guidance regarding several emergency waivers related to Medicare and Medicaid policy and...

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has announced an additional $20 billion in funding that is being made available to providers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. This 3rd Phase of the General Distribution is available to healthcare providers, even if they have already received Provider Relief Fund payments through Phase 1 or Phase 2 of the HHS Provider Relief Fund’s General Distribution. Providers can begin applying for funds on October 5, and will have...