NEW YORK, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The Biden administration's decision to end the COVID-19 public health emergency in May will institute sweeping changes across the health care system in the United States that go far beyond many people having to pay more for COVID tests, reported CBS News on Tuesday.
"In response to the pandemic, the federal government in 2020 suspended many of its rules on how care is delivered. That transformed essentially every corner of American health care -- from hospitals and nursing homes to public health and treatment for people recovering from addiction," said the report.
With the end of the emergency, nursing homes will have to meet higher standards for training workers; a looming rollback of broader access to buprenorphine, an important medication for people in recovery from opioid addiction, is alarming patients and doctors; hospitals return to normal, somewhat, with strong demand for experienced staff members, it noted.
In addition, the way state and local public health departments monitor the spread of disease will change after the emergency ends, because the Department of Health and Human Services won't be able to require labs to report COVID testing data.
"Without a uniform, federal requirement, how states and counties track the spread of the coronavirus will vary. Though hospitals will still provide COVID data to the federal government, they may do so less frequently," it added.
