Thursday Miscellany

David Ermer–Congress, COVID-19, OPM–

On the COVID-19 front —

  • The President signed the Families First Coronavirus Response bill (H.R. 6021) into law last night. The Society for Human Resource Management discusses the HR aspects of the new law.
  • The FEHBlog ran across this Worldometer COVID-19 monitor. The FEHBlog finds it easier to decipher than the Johns Hopkins dashboard.
  • A company called Everlywell will start selling an at home COVID-19 tests on Monday. The testing floodgates finally may be opening.
  • Currently telehealth doctors must be licensed in the state where the patient resides. MHealthIntelligence reports that the federal government is about to override this state law requirement. That action would give quite a boost to telehealth and would help staffing hospitals in cities with adjoining states like New York City and Washington DC.

Finally, here’s a link to the Politico article that broke the story about Dale Cabaniss’s resignation as OPM Director on Tuesday. The FEHBlog is disturbed that a federal agency director would resign over personal differences with White House officials in the midst of a national emergency. Can’t we all get along?