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- New Monkeypox Test Code Mapping Guide; HHS Extends Public Health Emergency
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a new test code mapping guide for monkeypox on November 14. The LOINC In-Vitro Diagnostic (LIVD) Test Code Mapping Guide is available for all monkeypox virus diagnostic tests that received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization. This guide supports the use of harmonized LOINC and SNOMED Clinical Terms (CT) codes to help improve the accuracy and standardization of monkeypox virus test reporting across the United States.
Public Health Emergency Extended to April 2023
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is also expected to extend the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration until April 2023. The public health emergency is set to end on January 12, 2023, but health care stakeholders urged the HSS to extend the emergency declaration through the winter to address a potential COVID surge. However the PHE will last through mid-April 2023 since the Biden administration promised to give 60-days' notice before the PHE ends. That 60 days’ deadline passed last week. The extension allows states more time to prepare for the Medicaid redetermination process slated to restart once the emergency ends.
The HHS pledged to give stakeholders 60 days’ notice before officially ending the declaration so they could prepare for the end of the various waivers and other policies that are only in effect through the emergency. These include the requirement that states keep Medicaid beneficiaries on their rolls to get higher federal matching funds, waivers for telehealth services, and waivers that allow providers staffing flexibility.