A Fond Farewell to the Public Health Emergency
Pandemic Minute: A lesson on expanding health care as we cheerfully wave goodbye
Happy May! Wherever you are in your return to “normal,” let’s all bid a fond farewell at least to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency- it is officially set to expire on May 11. As we cheerfully wave goodbye, I thought we could take a (pandemic) minute or two to reflect on what it gave us. And perhaps what we learned that might be worth keeping.
The Public Health Emergency (PHE) status helped increase supply of urgently needed medical services in several ways. Last month, I discussed how it is hard for health care to stretch because of lengthy training requirements or costly equipment, but let’s not forget multilayered federal and state regulation. Under PHE status, states could issue emergency licensure exemptions to many regulations, speeding up licensing of providers, allowing providers to move across state lines to practice in high-need areas, and temporarily easing restrictions on tasks performed by non-physician health professionals, such as residents or nursing staff. Beginning as Washington state and New York struggled to meet surging demands on the health care system, over 18 states and D.C. used the PHE to enact legislation recognizing out-of-state licenses for a variety of health practitioners by the end of 2020.[1] The PHE also allowed health care capacity to stretch physically, permitting use of convention centers, ‘hospitals without walls,’ and drive-through testing facilities.
Our lesson: If the number of skilled medical professionals can’t increase quickly, we can at least help these skills move more efficiently to where they are needed.
[1] Iris Hentze, “Brief: COVID-19: Occupational Licensing During Public Emergencies,” National Conference of State Legislatures. October 30, 2020.