The landscape of our society and almost every industry has seen unprecedented change thanks to the pandemic. COVID-19 has wrought enormous transformations to healthcare laws, in particular. The media has been on fire with this topic for years.
The potential for lawsuits amidst these changing laws is an evolving issue. All you need to do is look at the COVID-19 disability rulings to see that similar situations will crop up across all industries.
We need to avoid any mishaps and to help fortify ourselves with a better understanding of the law. We are going to go over seven vital healthcare laws that we should all be aware of in 2022.
1) Creating a Stronger Public Health Response
COVID-19 revealed the inability of healthcare providers to make a large-scale response to a virulent disease. One part of the bigger picture was the inability of public health to ensure supplies of necessary medicines and ingredients.
There have been long talks about ways to put in place a better public response, to combat a repeat situation. The Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee has already been experimenting with this. Their think tanks have brainstormed different bills that could ease the strain.
Funding remains an ever-present issue, but these developments deserve a close eye kept on them.
2) Lack of Care for the Elderly
There was one issue that took front and center stage during the pandemic. That was how understaffed and unprepared nursing homes and long-term care facilities were. Though these facilities can use certain waivers on requirements by the CMS, they may expire soon.
The CDC now asks for a far more diligent approach to the pandemic, requesting large amounts of data in regular reports.
Most of the data related to how each institution handled the pandemic. A standard example would be whether or not they have sufficient supplies of PPE equipment and how many cases of the disease are present.
3) The Inequity of Treatment During the Pandemic
One group hit harder than any other during the pandemic was the low-income group. The rising price of medical bills and the lack of employment when COVID-19 was hitting the country led to many being unable to afford treatment.
There are many different bills in this arena looking to alleviate these issues. Even more important is the work done by the CMS to implement other payment options for those in need.
4) The Administration of Relief Funds
The economy has suffered its hardships during the pandemic, and those effects rippled to every industry. To combat the worst of this, the HHS began distributing $178 billion to reduce losses from COVID-19.
The fund goes by the Provider Relief Fund, or the PRF, rolling out over a multi-phase period. We could see this model kept in place for the years to come. Mainly because there will be an evaluation on which healthcare providers took the hardest at the hands of the pandemic.
5) The Problem of Healthcare on Distance
Almost every line of work saw an increase in reliance on digital infrastructures because so many employees had to work from home. The healthcare industry offered some of the few positions that caused workers to face the front line of the pandemic. A reduction in face-to-face meetings by telehealth seemed effective. This wasn’t without its issues, however.
Allowing patients to use digital methods to discuss symptoms and issues introduced problems of liability. At the height of the pandemic, there was a waiver that allowed a healthcare provider to give more detailed advice and treatments while remaining protected from claims.
That waiver could change at any moment, depending on the threat level of the pandemic, so healthcare providers must stay aware to be on top of healthcare compliance.
Information technology such as those used to satisfy the DQSA and DSCA prescription drug laws has had its requirements met by the likes of MedPro Systems®. Telehealth will have some catching up to do, however.
6) Maintaining a Safe Work Place
Workplace safety became a hotbed of issues, made worse every time there was a spike in COVID-19 cases. Healthcare workers who had to endure the front lines of the disease when it was at its apex were subject to a litany of labor issues.
Workers in this industry had to endure terminations for little to no reason. All because the institutions they worked for were not practicing the best healthcare law.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act received modifications. This helped put one of those cases of wrongful termination to rest. An employer could no longer fire an employee due to unforeseen circumstances if the reason cited was COVID-19.
In addition, a new healthcare law so that employees could have left for reasons related to COVID-19.
7) Cybersecurity and Protected Health Information
With how drastic Covid-19 changed the world, patients have found it more important than ever to have access to their health records. Though HIPAA and PHI laws do not often see much change, there are already proposed alterations.
Patient record requests have already been the subject of lawsuits in the past. Data breaches became more commonplace in the wake of the pandemic.
Many of the proposed changes to HIPAA and PHI aim to make it easier for patients to request their information. Some healthcare providers have had a lackadaisical approach to this matter, but can expect more OCR enforcement in the future.
Shoring Up Weaknesses in Healthcare Laws
Everyone hopes that we’ve seen the last of situations like the one caused by COVID-19. If not, though, some of these new healthcare laws should go some way to mitigating future disasters.
The wheels of the government can turn slowly at times, but that doesn’t mean that updates aren’t coming thick and fast. If you want to stay up to date with everything from news to entertainment, then keep reading the blog!
