Healthcare Worker Updates
Are you a medical professional? Can you volunteer?
To support ongoing COVID-19 emergency response efforts, the Baker-Polito Administration has partnered with the Massachusetts Medical Society to match volunteers with our communities and health care providers based on skillsets and need. There is an immediate need for respiratory therapists and public health nurses, and the administration is asking health care professionals interested in volunteering to sign up:
Medical School 4th Year Students: Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders and DPH Commissioner Dr. Monica Bharel have coordinated with Massachusetts medical schools to facilitate early graduation of their qualified fourth-year students to allow graduates to support the health care workforce during the COVID-19 response. This coordinated effort includes Boston University School of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Tufts University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School.
MA Responds needs volunteers of all skill levels and backgrounds from both medical and non-medical professions. If you are a licensed or certified health care provider, a public health professional, a retiree, or are an individual with an interest in helping the community, we invite you to complete the secure online registration process.
Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs): The administration has issued a public health order to provide APRNs in good standing with greater flexibility in their prescribing practices. This order includes the following updates:
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Authorizes APRNs who have at least two years of supervised practice experience to prescribe without physician supervision.
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Authorizes APRNs with fewer than two years of supervised practice experience to prescribe with physician supervision, but without the normally required written guidelines.
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Certified nurse midwives will be allowed to continue to prescribe as already authorized.
MassHealth Waiver: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved, in part, the Baker-Polito Administration’s 1135 waiver to fast-track MassHealth enrollment, streamline administrative requirements for providers and better deliver critically needed health care services during the COVID-19 public health emergency. CMS has approved the following items of the waiver:
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Enrollment of out-of-state providers and easing other provider requirements when enrolling in MassHealth.
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Allowing providers to be reimbursed for care in alternative, unlicensed settings.
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Suspension of prior authorization requirements and extending pre-existing prior authorizations through the emergency.
A special THANK YOU to all healthcare workers and emergency personnel who are on the COVID-19 front lines, exposed to the virus while social distancing from family.
We are all so grateful for your critical and dedicated efforts.
~Representative Khan