Once the emergency ends, measures that allowed a broad array of health providers – from pharmacist interns to retired nurses and even veterinarians – to administer vaccines will expire, which could lead to decreased access to vaccination in many parts of the U.S. 25, 2023, about 20% of the population ages 5 and up and only 40.1% of those 65 and older – who are at the highest risk of death from COVID-19 – had received an updated bivalent booster dose. We are concerned that the withdrawal of federal emergency funds for vaccination may further slow the already sluggish uptake of boosters. If such programs are to continue, the cost will fall to state and local health agencies or insurance companies. Federal emergency funding for free treatment or vaccination will end when the emergency status is lifted on May 11. The end of the emergency could additionally curb access to COVID-19 drugs, tests and vaccines. Medicare coverage for many telehealth services could also be made permanent after this year. The array of telehealth services that Medicare began covering during the pandemic will continue to be covered through December 2023. People with Medicare do not have to worry about losing their benefits, since this program is age-based, not income-based. This could result in between 5 million and 14 million people losing coverage. Some states have already indicated that they will begin disenrolling members in April 2023 or require members to apply to be considered for renewal. The Biden administration has defended this time frame as sufficient to ensure that “patients do not lose access to care unpredictably” and that state Medicaid budgets – which have been infused with emergency funds since 2020 – “don’t face a radical cliff.” But many people with Medicaid may be unaware of these changes until they actually lose their benefits. In a December 2022 appropriations bill, Congress passed a provision that will end continuous enrollment on March 31, 2023. In March 2020, Congress enacted a continuous enrollment provision in Medicaid that prevented states from removing anyone from their rolls during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, states required people to prove every year that they met income and other eligibility requirements. The end to the federal emergency could substantially reduce the number of people insured under Medicaid. What policy changes will occur once the emergency is declared over? And they made it possible for people to receive free COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccines and enabled Medicaid and Medicare to more easily cover telehealth services. The emergency status also allowed the federal government to make health care more widely available by suspending many requirements for accessing Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Program. In addition, the declarations made resources available to launch investigations into the “ cause, treatment or prevention” of COVID-19 and to enter into contracts with other organizations to meet needs stemming from the emergency. For instance, the declarations allowed funds to be made available so that federal agencies could direct personnel, equipment, supplies and services to state and local governments wherever they were needed. 31, 2020, and the COVID-19 national emergency that President Donald Trump announced on Ma– will be allowed to expire in May 2023.ĭeclaring those emergencies enabled the federal government to cut through a mountain of red tape, with the goal of responding to the pandemic more efficiently. In practical terms, it means that two declarations – the federal Public Health Emergency, first declared on Jan. What does ending the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic mean?Įnding the federal emergency reflects both a scientific and political judgment that the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis has ended and that special federal resources are no longer needed to prevent disease transmission across borders. The Conversation asked public health experts Marian Moser Jones and Amy Lauren Fairchild to put these statements into context and to explain their ramifications for the next stage of the pandemic. ![]() The WHO’s advisory committee noted that although the pandemic is at a turning point, “COVID-19 remains a dangerous infectious disease with the capacity to cause substantial damage to health and health systems.” 30, 2023, that he intends to end both the national emergency and the public health emergency declarations related to COVID-19 on May 11, 2023.īiden’s announcement came on the same day that the World Health Organization said it still considers the COVID-19 pandemic to be a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, a status that is reassessed every three months. COVID-19 emergency status prompted coordinated vaccination efforts by health care providers, paramedics, volunteers and others.
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