COVID-19

Coronavirus update for Tuesday, May 26 as of 2:30 p.m. Department of Health and Human Services HHS has submitted its required report to Congress detailing its COVID-19 strategic testing plan. HHS announced a 45-day extension for providers that are receiving grants from the CARES Act’s Provider Relief Fund to accept the terms and conditions for those payments. This means providers have now been granted 90 days from the date they received a payment to accept the terms and conditions or return the money. ASPR TRACIE, sponsored by HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to provide [...]

Coronavirus update for Friday, May 22 as of 3:30 p.m. Department of Health and Human Services HHS has updated its CARES Act Provider Relief Fund page, adding a new section on allocations for skilled nursing facilities. That new section is the foundation for HHS’s announcement that it has begun distributing nearly $4.9 billion in relief funds to skilled nursing facilities to help them respond to the effects of COVID-19. Each SNF will receive a fixed distribution of $50,000 plus $2500 per bed.  All certified SNFs with six or more certified beds are eligible for this targeted distribution. HHS has updated [...]

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 [...]