(CNN)Plans are moving forward at the US Department of Health and Human Services to prepare for the end of the nation's Covid-19 public health emergency declaration in May.
On Thursday, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra sent a letter and fact sheet to state governors detailing what exactly the end of the emergency declaration will mean for jurisdictions and their residents.
"Addressing COVID-19 remains a significant public health priority for the Administration, and over the next few months, we will transition our COVID-19 policies, as well as the current flexibilities enabled by the COVID-19 emergency declarations, into improving standards of care for patients. We will work closely with partners including state, local, Tribal, and territorial agencies, industry, and advocates, to ensure an orderly transition," Becerra wrote in a draft of the letter obtained by CNN.
"In the coming days, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will also provide additional information, including about the waivers many states and health systems have adopted and how they will be impacted by the end of the COVID-19 PHE," he wrote. "I will share that resource with your team when available."
Declaring a public health emergency in the United States means that certain actions, access to funds, grants, waivers and data -- among other steps -- can happen more quickly in response to the crisis for the duration of the emergency. A declaration lasts 90 days -- unless HHS ends it -- and may be renewed.
On January 30, the White House announced its intention to end the Covid-19 national and public health emergencies on May 11, signaling that the administration considers the nation to have moved out of the emergency response phase.
'We are having ongoing conversations'
Becerra had agreed to give governors a 60-day notice to prepare for the end of the emergency. Thursday's letter was sent 90 days ahead of the emergency's planned end.
"We are having ongoing conversations about what else we need to do in the next 90 days to ensure a smooth transition. I can tell you that every one of our agencies has been working hard on this plan," an HHS official told CNN. "We're going to have a series of additional materials that will go out, as well as a series of conversations over the coming days and weeks."
The end of the public health emergency will affect some Medicare and state Medicaid flexibilities provided for the duration of the emergency. This includes waivers like the requirement for a three-day hospital stay before Medicare will cover care at a skilled nursing facility.
"We've been working closely with the governors on the public health emergency. This is a combination of both federal flexibilities that we allow, and the states are often the ones who are using those flexibilities," the HHS official said.
"Just about every aspect of the pandemic response, I would say, has been in partnership with our state partners. And so, I think they have been, frankly for months now, the ones that we have been going to and the ones that we publicly committed to notifying in advance of changes to the public health emergency declaration."
But the emergency's end will not impact the authorizations of Covid-19 devices, including tests, vaccines and treatments that have been authorized for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration.