Following the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announcement that guidelines to resume elective procedures for healthcare systems were released:

Kamilla Kan, Medical Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view on the recent news:

“In March CMS has released recommendations for healthcare providers to postpone non-emergency elective procedures in order to protect medical personnel and patients from COVID-19 exposure and prevent shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE). As a result, medical workers were laid off and hospitals experienced a significant loss of revenue amid COVID-19 crisis.

“According to CMS guidelines, healthcare facilities that want to resume elective procedures have to ensure the Gating Criteria (symptoms, cases, hospitals) announced on April 16 has been met in their local area. States that do not meet gating criteria are recommended to optimize telehealth services and continue to shelter in place individuals at high risk for COVID-19. Furthermore, patients with serious underlying health conditions, limited access to telehealth and at high risk due to delayed procedures will be prioritized for elective procedures.

“COVID-19 pandemic put a significant strain on healthcare facilities and revealed disparities in healthcare in different states and regions. In order to prevent the crisis to develop further and prepare for a second wave of infections an urgent optimization and adoption of telehealth is needed more than ever.”