Summarizing the Coronavirus Economic Relief Act – Part II
Read Part I Here
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act requires “personal protective equipment, ancillary medical supplies, and other applicable supplies required for the administration of drugs, vaccines and other biological products, medical devices, and diagnostic tests” to be added to the strategic national stockpile.
The act will also “require group health plans and health insurance issuers offering group or individual health insurance to cover (without cost-sharing) any qualifying coronavirus preventive service, [including] an item, service, or immunization that is intended to prevent or mitigate coronavirus disease 2019”.
“$1,320,000,000 for fiscal year 2020” is allocated “for supplemental awards” to health centers “for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 or the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19”.
$1,000,000 over fiscal years 2021 through 2025 is appropriated to fund “nurse practice arrangement, managed by advanced practice nurses, that provides primary care or wellness services to underserved or vulnerable populations”. These appropriations are intended for “supporting training and education of nursing students, related to the distribution of the nursing workforce and existing or projected nursing workforce shortages in geographic areas that have been identified as having, or that are projected to have, a nursing shortage; increasing access to and the quality of health care services, including by supporting the training of professional registered nurses, advanced practice registered nurses, and advanced education nurses within community based settings and in a variety of health delivery system settings”.
The bill additionally provides that “a health care professional shall not be liable under Federal or State law for any harm caused by an act or omission of the professional in the provision of health care services during the public health emergency with respect to COVID-19” when “the professional is providing health care services in response to such public health emergency, as a volunteer”.
(A summary of pages 178-310 of the bill is included in this article. The bill is 880 pages long. Further summaries to follow.)