The South Dakota Department of Social Services wants more flexibility for medical providers responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
The department is requesting a waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The waiver would lift certain rules and regulations on health-care providers in the Medicaid system.
Department Secretary Laurie Gill said providers need the waiver to effectively treat patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
“It might take ways to get that done that we’re not even imagining yet,” Gill said. “So what we want to do is get some of the regulations waived so that we are able to be flexible and nimble to respond to the healthcare needs of the citizens of our state.”
Among other things, the waiver would allow:
- Flexible staffing requirements at nursing homes and other health care facilities;
- Facilities such as nursing homes, hospitals, psychiatric residential treatment centers and others to provide services in alternative settings, and for the services to be covered and reimbursed by Medicaid;
- Certain hospitals to exceed bed limits and length-of-stay requirements; and,
- Medicaid reimbursement of telehealth services.
