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Coronavirus May 1 Update: Pentagon May Seek Relief Funds, Telemedicine Now Key to Us Health Care, and a Look at How State Budgets Have Been Impacted
Pentagon may seek coronavirus funds in next relief bill
The Defense Department may seek billions of dollars in the next COVID-19 recovery bill because it may not have the flexibility to redirect portions of its $738 billion budget, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer said Thursday.
Ellen Lord, Defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, told reporters that her office is continuing to work with the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to assess how much it might request in the next COVID-19 funding bill.
Lord previously said that the Pentagon may ask for billions of dollars to help defense companies that are struggling with cash flow because of slowdowns and disruptions caused by the outbreak. The Pentagon has already indicated it would push $3 billion to companies in its supply chain by increasing the amount of expenses it reimburses for costs incurred as projects proceed.
“I am not sure we have the fiscal flexibility to encompass all of the new demands we have and all the inefficiencies that we are seeing and perhaps may see in the future,” she said.
On Wednesday, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith of Washington suggested the Defense Department could find the money within its $738 billion budget for fiscal 2020. He does not support more funding for the Defense Department in the next recovery bill, he said.
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Telemedicine key to US health care even after pandemic ends
As thousands of patients struck by COVID-19 rushed to seek treatment in overcrowded New York City hospitals, intensive care specialists more than 350 miles away at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center stepped up to provide remote assistance to beleaguered colleagues in New York.
Specialists in Pittsburgh can read the electronic medical records of COVID-19 patients at the New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center in Lower Manhattan and use telemedicine platforms to provide advice, for example, on how to care for patients on ventilators.
“There are more patients than ICUs or trained physicians can take care of” in New York, said Robert Bart, the chief medical information officer for the Pittsburgh Medical Center. To bridge the gap, New York asked non-intensive care specialists or so-called hospitalists to “manage the less acute patients on ventilators.”
Although hospitalists can manage patients who are not on ventilators, they need the assistance of intensive care specialists to guide them on how to manage settings on ventilators to match the needs of patients, said Bart, who’s also a pediatric intensive care physician.
The electronic as well as audio-video interactions between physicians in New York and intensive care doctors 370 miles away in Pittsburgh, either through FaceTime or a dedicated telemedicine platform such as Vidyo, are possible because federal and state governments have eased restrictions on sharing patient data as well as lowering barriers that prevented widespread use of telemedicine.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on March 17 said it was waiving restrictions on telehealth services “so that beneficiaries can receive a wider range of services from their doctors without having to travel to a healthcare facility.” Before that waiver, Medicare would only pay for telehealth when the person receiving the service was in a designated rural area and went to a designated location to get a telehealth consultation.
CMS also said the waiver would remain in place for the duration of the coronavirus health emergency, and the agency would pay doctors and hospitals for telehealth services at the same rate as in-person services. CMS said the Department of Health and Human Services also would ease back on enforcement of patient privacy requirements under the federal law restricting release of medical information, so that doctors can use FaceTime, Skype, WhatsApp and other video platforms to consult with patients.
Read more on RollCall.com.
Tech companies overlooked by COVID-19 aid form new lobbying coalition
It used to be there was an app for that — well, now there’s a new lobbying coalition for the apps.
The new group representing small and medium tech companies, dubbed the App Coalition, is coming online Wednesday as part of an effort to distinguish the lobbying messages of the smaller players from the biggest tech companies when it comes to government relief for COVID-19, privacy and data security matters and other policy debates on Capitol Hill and within the executive branch.
The effort was already underway before the coronavirus pandemic put special scrutiny on technological applications that assist in such areas as remote work and distance teaching, said lobbyists and company executives behind the coalition.
“It was time to stand up a new technology lobbying organization, and one that creates space for smaller companies, independent companies, medium-sized publicly traded companies to talk about their issues,” said Eric Silverberg, CEO of Perry Street Software, a founding member of the coalition. “I fully expect this coalition to become one of the biggest and most significant tech lobbying and advocacy organizations in D.C. over the next 12 months.”
Silverberg, whose company produces LGBT dating apps, said the idea behind the App Coalition has been in the works for about nine months, but the coronavirus crisis has become a top policy priority for the organization. It will press lawmakers to provide relief for technology companies, including those that receive significant funding from venture capital firms, Silverberg said, something that previous relief bills have limited.
“It started as a discussion of policy issues, but then with coronavirus, there was a very clear indication from all our members, as they were seeing people in isolation and quarantine were more heavily engaged in the app economy,” said Michael Drobac, a senior adviser with McGuireWoods Consulting, who is helping run the coalition. “Now we’re in a position where a majority of Americans are using these apps. This is the economy that people are using. This is front and center.”
McGuireWoods Consulting is managing the effort. Silverberg said he expects the coalition to hire full-time staff in the coming months if additional members sign on. Drobac declined to offer an estimate for the coalition’s starting budget.
Other founding members in the coalition include travel and dining apps Booking.com, Priceline, Kayak and Open Table; email app Blix/Blue Mail; and social networking app Fritzy.
Read more on RollCall.com.