COVID-19

Coronavirus update for May 20, 2020 as of 2:30 p.m. Department of Health and Human Services HHS has updated its FAQ for the distribution of CARES Act money through the Provider Relief Fund on four occasions in the past two weeks, including new updates dated yesterday.  Updates from yesterday include instructions on attestation and questions about change in ownership.  Go here to see the changes, which are identified within the document. HHS announced that its Health Resources and Services Administration provided $225 million to rural health clinics for COVID-19 testing and shared a state-by-state breakdown of the funding.   Centers [...]

Coronavirus update for May 19, 2020 as of 2:30 p.m. Department of Health and Human Services HHS has updated its FAQ for the distribution of CARES Act money through the Provider Relief Fund on three occasions in the past two weeks. Go here to see the changes, which are identified within the document. HHS is providing $11 billion in new funding to support COVID-19 testing to states, territories, and tribes. States must submit to HHS their projected month-to-month testing plans and capabilities for the rest of calendar year 2020.   Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS issued recommendations on [...]

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 [...]