How the health industry is faring amid coronavirus

Remember those asks from industry we highlighted last week? Turns out Washington was listening (sort of.) For starters, ER doctors that had been asking for an extension on the paperwork they’re required to file to Medicare got an extra 30 days and relief from penalties from CMS. Top Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have also been pushing to suspend mandatory Medicare cuts for hospitals in the stimulus package they're still negotiating.

Nursing homes, which regulators fear could become a hotbed of Covid-19 cases, however, are having a tougher go with federal regulators. Yesterday, CMS announced its findings from an investigation of the Kirkland, Wash. nursing home where 35 people died of Covid-19; The home was cited for a so-called “immediate jeopardy” violation — among the most serious violations that can be doled out by CMS. On March 18, the facility was notified it would no longer be able to participate in the Medicare program unless it remedied the issues within 23 days.

CMS also said it's going to start working with the CDC to target inspections at nursing homes where there's a risk of Covid-19 spread, and that it'll direct all of its inspectors to focus on so-called complaint inspections and infection control practices. The CDC has identified 147 nursing homes across 27 states that have at least one resident with Covid-19.

You can see all of STAT's coronavirus coverage here, but some highlights:

With the coronavirus surging, Trump wants science to move far faster. It can’t.
Fed up with what they see as inadequate and confusing directives from public health authorities, many U.S. physicians are seeking on-the-ground Covid-19 advice from colleagues in China.
Who’s who, among the Trump administration’s coronavirus response team: As Trump puts it, the coronavirus pandemic has created “a number of new stars.”
Rising Pharmaceuticals doubled the price of chloroquine phosphate in December. But now that it’s seen as a promising coronavirus treatment, it’s cutting the drug’s price back in half.
An updated guide to the coronavirus drugs and vaccines in development. And, separately, a forecast of when the experimental drugs might be ready.