State Health and Value Strategies (SHVS), in partnership with Manatt Health, Georgetown’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR), State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), Bailit Health, and GMMB developed this resource page to serve as an accessible “one-stop” source of COVID-19 information for states. This resource is designed to support states seeking to make coverage and essential services available to all of their residents, especially high risk and vulnerable people, during the COVID-19 pandemic. SHVS will update this page frequently with new resources as they become available.
| If you have materials you are willing to share with other states through this page, or if there are topics of particular concern that you would like addressed, please contact SHVS. |
The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis that has triggered an economic crisis. While the federal government acted to provide financial relief, states have faced significant growth in expenditures in response to the pandemic, as well as simultaneous and severe drops in revenue. This expert perspective provides a snapshot of how states are navigating the known and unknown fiscal challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, given declining revenues and rising spending demands in the context of balanced budget requirements. The strategies that states employ to address the fiscal fallout of COVID-19, will have significant and long-lasting implications for critical health care and safety net programs.
OSHA issued FAQs for employers and employees about topics such as best practices to prevent the spread of COVID-19, workers’ rights to express concern about workplace conditions, COVID-19 testing, and worker training. The FAQs are supplementary to guidance issued in May and June, respectively: Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19 and Guidance on Returning to Work.
CMS issued guidance regarding hospital visitation policies for patients during Phase II of reopening, reiterating previous guidance that unrestricted visitation is not advised until Phase III of reopening. The guidance also outlines discretionary exceptions that hospitals may want to consider in certain instances, such as during end-of-life care and labor and delivery. In scenarios where visitation is allowed, CMS indicated that visitation should be limited to one visitor at a time and all in-person visitors should be screened for symptoms and wear cloth face coverings. CMS also indicated that virtual or outdoor visitation should be encouraged to the extent possible and that facilities should consider the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community, staffing levels, and PPE supplies before making exceptions to non-visitation policies.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health and Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) are partnering with CVS Health to offer COVID-19 testing services to skilled nursing facilities statewide, free of charge.
The Governor of California released tools, technology, and data that will allow scientists, researchers, technologists, and all Californians to better understand the impact of COVID-19.
This expert perspective provides a survey of actions that state and local governments have taken to intentionally incorporate equity into their recovery and reopening policies.
OSHA issued guidance to assist employers and workers in safely returning to work and reopening businesses deemed by local authorities as “non-essential” during the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidance is intended to supplement HHS, White House, and CDC guidance issued to date.
EEOC updated their technical assistance questions and answers, prohibiting employers from requiring COVID-19 antibody testing before allowing employees to return to the workplace. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), antibody testing constitutes a medical examination; citing the CDC guidance that antibody testing “should not be used to make decisions about returning persons to the workplace,” the EEOC explains antibody testing does not meet the ADA’s “job related and consistent with business necessity” standard for medical examinations or inquiries for current employees. Viral tests, however, are permissible under the ADA.
HHS issued a fact sheet reiterating the composition and objectives of Operation Warp Speed (OWS), a private-public partnership between CDC, FDA, NIH, BARDA, DoD, and private firms to deliver 300 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021. The fact sheet also provides updates on OWS activities and investments to develop the manufacturing and distribution capacity necessary for accomplishing its objectives. The CARES Act appropriated $10 billion for OWS, including over $6.5 billion for vaccine development through BARDA and $3 billion for NIH research.
The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) created an interactive map highlighting how every state and Washington, DC, is innovating and expanding its contact tracing capacity to contain the infection and reopen its economy.
The state’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery issued an open letter urging business and civic leaders in California to explicitly address racial disparities and focus their recovery policies on equitable and sustainable solutions.
Pennsylvania launched a dashboard that enhances data on demographic, testing, and re-opening metrics.
CMS issued guidance for providers in states and regions in Phase II of the White House’s “Opening Up America Again” guidelines that have no evidence of a COVID-19 rebound. The guidance encourages providers in these regions to return to offering non-emergent, non-COVID care in-person when such care cannot be offered virtually, for patients that are not at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness (as defined by CDC).
Governor Janet Mills announced that the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is significantly expanding contact tracing by increasing the number of skilled staff and volunteers, harnessing innovative technology, and securing social services to help people with COVID-19 maintain self-isolation.
The state of New York announced a contact tracing program that will be done in coordination with the downstate region as well as New Jersey and Connecticut.
Governor DeWine announced that Ohio is expanding testing and encouraged those who want a COVID-19 test, including those who are low-risk or asymptomatic, to talk with their health care provider or contact a testing location to arrange a test.
The state of Rhode Island has partnered with SalesForce, a global software company, to make a database that will allow the state and the National Guard to implement contact tracing processes effectively.
Governor Gavin Newsom launched California Connected, the state’s comprehensive contact tracing program and public awareness campaign in which the state plans to launch 10,000 contact tracers statewide.
Washington’s Phased Reopening plan, which moves the state through phased reopening on a county-by-county basis, will provide counties the flexibility to demonstrate they can safely allow additional economic activity based on targeted metrics.
Targeted testing and contact tracing represent a more ethical approach to lifting pandemic restrictions and opening up the economy given limited test supplies.
On May 18, Governor Phil Murphy unveiled a multi-stage approach to execute the responsible and strategic economic restart to put New Jersey on the road back to recovery from COVID-19.
To help states respond to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the White House, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have invoked various emergency authorities that allow for temporary flexibilities in the Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program programs. Congress also has passed legislation that provides additional federal support for state Medicaid programs, subject to certain conditions. The table describes the effective dates of these various provisions as well as the expiration timeline dictated by law or agency guidance; the table also includes current end dates, which are subject to change as federal and state officials take actions to renew or terminate particular authorities.
The New Jersey COVID-19 Information Hub addresses privacy concerns around contact tracing, including around public charge, in their FAQ page.
In an effort to address health disparities, the Governor of North Carolina signed an executive order directing resources to historically underutilized businesses, ensuring equitable distribution of pandemic relief funds, and supporting mass testing of migrant farm workers and food processing plant workers.
The city of Los Angeles’ reopening plan incorporates testing rates by poverty levels and race/ethnicity into its Effectiveness Indicators, which guide future decisions about loosening or tightening social distancing restrictions.
The city of Chicago’s reopening plan monitors cases over time by zip code, age, sex, race, and ethnicity to determine movement into different phases.
The city of New York hired over 1,700 contact tracers to join their Test & Trace Corp, with 700 of the new hires being from the neighborhoods that have been the hardest hit by COVID-19.
In a letter to the state’s Patient Protection Commission, the Governor of Nevada requested that the Commission develop long-term policy recommendations that address COVID-19 and broader health equity concerns.
In addition to helping New Yorkers safely separate, the city will also support those who are separating at home by designating Resource Navigators, who work with community-based organizations across the city, to help New Yorkers overcome logistical issues such as accessing medicine or clean laundry.
The state of Rhode Island submitted a waiver to CMS to use Medicaid funds to provide food, housing, and mobile phone minutes for people who are housing insecure.
West Virginia is increasing COVID-19 testing access for marginalized populations and those in medically underserved counties, making testing free and available to all residents in the targeted localities.
The state of Virginia is partnering with the City of Richmond to expand access to personal protective equipment in underserved communities.
The Virginia Department of Health and the Health Equity Task Force partnered with a local media outlet to provide information about the next phases of the recovery process and its implications for health equity.
To contain the spread of COVID-19, states are rapidly ramping up their contact tracing efforts.
Ohio’s Minority Health Strike Force recommended the hiring of public health workers who reflect the makeup of their own community to expand exposure notification capacity.
The state of New York is expanding access to testing for communities of color and low-income neighborhoods by establishing an initial 24 testing sites at churches in predominantly minority communities in downstate New York.
This report outlines three guiding principles for state policymakers in their equity efforts.
The Washington State Department of Health’s reopening plan relies on distinct data-driven categories to determine the state’s readiness for safely reopening.
Rhode Island’s recovery plan.
The Michigan Safe Start Plan, which utilizes public health metrics such as impacts on at-risk populations as criteria to trigger movement into consequent phases of reopening.
The state of Virginia has formed a Health Equity Work Group that is intentionally embedded into the state’s Uniform Command center addressing COVID-19. Both the Work Group and the Taskforce meet on a regular basis and work to apply a health equity lens to each phase of the state’s response, ranging from preparedness to mitigation to recovery.
In April, the state of Ohio formed the Minority Health Strike Force, which is tasked with responding to the disproportionate impact of the Coronavirus on African Americans. The state is now focused on implementing recommendations from the Strike Force.