CMS Issues Guidance on Emergency Preparedness

On May 26, 2022, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued revisions to memorandum QSO-20-41. The guidance allows for providers who continue to operate or have reactivated the emergency response plan due to COVID-19 to once again qualify for the actual emergency exemption from emergency preparedness emergency plan testing requirements.

Nursing homes are required to conduct two training exercises per cycle (12 months determined on the nursing home’s schedule). One exercise must be either a full-scale community-based exercise or an individual facility-based functional exercise. The second exercise in a cycle must be an exercise of choice, which could be a full scale or functional exercise, a table-top exercise, a workshop, or a mock disaster drill. If a provider activates the emergency plan for an actual emergency at any point during a cycle, the provider is exempt from completing the next scheduled full scale or functional exercise, though the exercise of choice is still required for each cycle.

CMS had, in September 2020, allowed for the COVID-19 public health emergency to be considered an actual emergency, and providers who had enacted their emergency plans in response were eligible for the actual emergency exemption. In June 2021, CMS revised the memo to once again allow activation of the emergency plan related to COVID-19 to satisfy criteria for the emergency exemption.