Public Health Emergency For Providers

Department of Health > Public Health Emergency > For Providers

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, has notified states that the federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) will not be extended beyond May 11, 2023. This means that the flexibilities enabled by the PHE will end.

Many divisions in the Department of Health deal with these flexibilities in unique ways and have more information about how the ending of the Public Health Emergency will affect the providers with whom they most often interact:

Providers of Senior and Disabilities Services (SDS)
Behavioral Health Providers & 1115 Waiver (DBH)
Medicaid and Health Facilities Licensing & Certification (HCS)
Medicaid Renewals (DPA)
The ending of Medicaid's continuous enrollment was originally tied to the ending of the PHE, but when Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act (summary) this year, that separated out the end of continuous enrollment from the date when the PHE ends.

COVID-19 Telehealth Flexibilities Continue

Following consultation with the Alaska Department of Law, the Department of Health is pleased to announce that, consistent with HB 265 which was enacted in 2022, telehealth flexibilities will continue beyond May 11, 2023. Recently proposed telehealth regulations, if filed, will make many of these flexibilities permanent. To subscribe to receive updates on this and other Department of Health proposed regulations, go to Alaska Online Public Notices, scroll to the bottom, and under “Subscriptions” select “all notices” (RSS or email) or “search now.”

Step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe are also available.

COVID-19 Waivers and Administrative Flexibilities:

How Health Care Providers and Suppliers are Affected

For specific details about how health care providers and suppliers should prepare for the end of the COVID-19 PHE, CMS has developed a series of provider-specific fact sheets: