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Coronavirus update for Tuesday, May 12 as of 3:00 p.m. Congress House Democrats have unveiled their newest pandemic relief bill.  The overall bill is estimated to cost around $3 trillion.  A few of the health care provisions included in this bill are: $100 billion for eligible health care providers to be distributed through the Health Care Provider Relief Fund. This is in addition to the $175 billion Congress has already appropriated for providers.  This bill would include a prescriptive and structured methodology for distribution of the Health Care Provider Relief Fund that would include, among other things: quarterly relief funds [...]

Coronavirus update for Friday, May 8 as of 2:30 p.m. Department of Health and Human Services HHS has updated its general distribution FAQ for the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund.  The updated FAQ includes items that are identified as new.  Among other things, it clarifies that HHS will not generally seek to recoup payments as long as providers’ lost revenue and increased expenses are greater than any payments in question.  The FAQ also instructs hospitals on what they should do if they believe they received a mistaken payment or an overpayment. HHS’s Office of the Inspector General has updated its [...]

Coronavirus update for Thursday, May 7 as of 2:30 p.m. Department of Health and Human Services Provider Relief Fund HHS has extended the deadline for attestation and acceptance of terms and conditions for payments from the Provider Relief Fund from the current 30 days to 45 days. HRSA, which is administering the program through which providers can submit claims for COVID-19-related care they provide to uninsured patients, has posted an FAQ based on a webinar it held last week to address how providers can submit those claims. HRSA also has posted a video demonstrating how to add and attest to [...]

Coronavirus update for Monday, May 4 as of 2:30 p.m. Department of Health and Human Services Last Friday HHS began processing $22 billion in payments from the CARES Act’s provider relief fund to hospitals with large numbers of COVID-19 admissions through April 10 and to rural providers in support of the national response to COVID-19.  See HHS’s announcement of the distribution of this money, including a breakdown by state of grant recipients.   Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS has posted a presentation that elaborates on the regulatory changes the agency introduced last week.  It includes explanations of how [...]

Coronavirus update for Friday, May 1 as of 4:00 p.m. Follow-Up to Thursday’s Interim Final Rule Release On Thursday CMS released a second interim final rule with comment period announcing a new round of regulatory waivers and rule changes to provide additional flexibility to the health care system as the COVID-19 crisis continues and the country begins to reopen. These changes included some of the telehealth flexibilities providers have asked for in recent weeks, such as hospital reimbursement for the originating site when telehealth services for Medicare patients are furnished by a physician or practitioner who ordinarily practices in a [...]