October 15, 2020

Dear Friends,

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services(CMS) expanded the list of telehealth services covered by Medicare.

• Additionally, CMS has a toolkit for states interested in expanding telehealth services for Medicaid and CHIP patients.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense announced an agreement with AstraZeneca for development and manufacturing of its investigational COVID-19 antibody cocktail.

The Food and Drug Administration gave approval for Pfizer and BioNTech to test their COVID-19 vaccine candidate in children as young as 12.

The CoVig-19 Plasma Alliance started enrolling patients in the Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of an anti-coronavirus hyperimmune intravenous immunoglobulin medicine candidate.

Texas Updates
The Texas Department of State Health Services and the Texas Division of Emergency Management deployed more medical personnel and sent more PPE to assist El Paso’s COVID-19 response.

Dallas County officials raised the county’s perceived risk level back to red.

Until next time, this is your doctor’s note.

Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D.