Responding to a pandemic is a gymnastic feat of healthcare regulations. Jennifer Nelson Carney, chair of Bricker & Eckler’s Health Care industry group, explains the Federal and State changes that allowed for a nimble response to COVID. Jennifer’s practice focuses on the business and regulatory needs of health care providers. She advises clients on the balance of minimizing risk while providing good patient care from intake to discharge.
Quick side note … we accidentally used the word “respirators” when we should have said “ventilators,” so please don’t laugh too hard. Remember that Jenny is an attorney and I am a marketer. We did our best. ?
Highlights include:
6:03 -JNC: “(Hospitals) have this huge regulatory framework that they need to comply with under normal circumstances. And that suddenly became somewhat unbearable because of the pandemic. So what happened is CMS, which is the source of lots of healthcare regulation, was able to issue waivers of regulations, meaning this regulation is still on the books but you, healthcare provider, don’t have to comply with it during this public health (crisis).”
10:05 – JNC: “The States have health care regulations, as well. And a lot of what you see in State regulation relates to scope of practice or individual clinicians and supervision requirements and things like that. So that’s at the Federal level, too, but you also see some of it embedded in State. And so, you know, the States were all grappling as to how to deal with this, too.”
15:11 – JNC: “Even in the midst of all this, start planning for a rollback. So eventually you’re not going to be able to use this waiver. How will you roll it back? What will that take? And make sure that you have that plan in place.”
24:35 – JNC: “I would call and say, okay, we need some portable x-ray equipment. What do you need from us? Do we need to register it as being at a different location? And they would say, well, is it coming from a hospital or is it brand new? (To) see the things that we were able to do in a matter of weeks because of the cooperation from everyone was amazing.”
Leading with Health is hosted by Jennifer Michelle. Jennifer has a Master’s in Public Health and Epidemiology and is a former EMT. As President of Michelle Marketing Strategies, Jennifer specializes in healthcare marketing. She is on a mission to create a healthcare system that actually cares about the patients and the providers.