Amid ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Cuomo announces relief for hospitals; announces tracing efforts

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that the New York State Department of Financial Services will direct health insurers to provide cash flow relief to, and ease administrative burdens on, New York State hospitals in response to COVID-19.

According to the governor’s release, relief provided to hospitals during the pandemic includes insurers’ immediate payment of outstanding accounts receivables, suspension of preauthorization requirements for all hospital services, and prohibition of retrospective review of claims.

DFS will issue a circular letter directing health insurers to:

• Immediately process for payment outstanding hospital claims;
• In collaboration with DFS, work with hospitals in insurers’ network to provide additional financial assistance if needed and feasible, focusing on community, rural, and safety-net hospitals;
• Suspend preauthorization requirements for all services performed at hospitals, including lab work and radiology, until June 18, 2020;
• Not conduct retrospective reviews of hospital claims, until June 18, 2020, subject to limited exceptions; and
• Not make medical necessity denials related to emergency department and inpatient hospital treatment for COVID-19.

 “We are at a profound moment in this crisis where we are finally passing the apex of the curve, but if we make a bad move now it’s going to set us back,” Governor Cuomo said, adding, “We’re beginning to make plans on how to re-open our economy and start the return to the new normal, but in the meantime we have to ensure our health care system and our hospitals that have been so critical in combating this virus have the support they need. The Department of Financial Services is going to issue a directive to health insurers to provide financial and administrative relief to our hospitals so they can continue safely and quickly providing the care that is so desperately needed right now.”

The governor also announced, alongside Mike Bloomberg, a new nation-leading COVID-19 contact tracing program to control the infection rate of the disease. Mike Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies have committed organizational support and technical assistance to help build and execute this new program.

According to the governor’s release, the contact tracing program will be done in coordination with the downstate region as well as New Jersey and Connecticut and will serve as an important resource to gather best practices and as a model that can be replicated across the nation. There has never been a contact tracing program implemented at this scale either in New York or anywhere in the United States. The program will launch immediately.

As part of this effort, The Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University will build an online curriculum and training program for contact tracers. The New York State Department of Health will work with Bloomberg Philanthropies to help identify and recruit contact tracer candidates for the training program, including staff from the State Department of Health, investigators from various state agencies, hundreds of tracers from downstate counties and SUNY and CUNY students in medical fields.

Bloomberg Philanthropies will also work with New York State to establish an expert panel to review the work of the program, and create a best in class model that other states can use for contact tracing.

Finally, the Governor confirmed 5,526 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 257,216 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 257,216 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

 

County	Total Positive	New Positive
Albany	737	33
Allegany	30	0
Broome	219	14
Cattaraugus	37	2
Cayuga	36	0
Chautauqua	26	1
Chemung	75	0
Chenango	79	0
Clinton	51	0
Columbia	117	4
Cortland	25	0
Delaware	50	1
Dutchess	2,391	60
Erie	2,233	86
Essex	22	1
Franklin	13	0
Fulton	28	1
Genesee	122	1
Greene	87	0
Hamilton	3	0
Herkimer	53	3
Jefferson	54	0
Lewis	9	0
Livingston	39	0
Madison	106	0
Monroe	1112	42
Montgomery	38	1
Nassau	31,555	476
Niagara	268	8
NYC	142,432	3,107
Oneida	301	17
Onondaga	526	12
Ontario	73	1
Orange	6,690	129
Orleans	56	3
Oswego	49	0
Otsego	49	0
Putnam	611	6
Rensselaer	186	3
Rockland	9,699	131
Saratoga	264	7
Schenectady	280	7
Schoharie	20	0
Schuyler	7	0
Seneca	18	0
St. Lawrence	123	3
Steuben	171	1
Suffolk	28,854	700
Sullivan	561	6
Tioga	39	2
Tompkins	119	0
Ulster	913	20
Warren	108	6
Washington	73	5
Wayne	52	1
Westchester	25,276	620
Wyoming	40	4
Yates	11	1