Policy Updates

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26. Provider Relief Fund The deadline to apply for General Distribution Phase 2 Provider Relief Funds for Medicaid, CHIP, dental, and certain Medicare providers, previously this Friday, August 28, has been extended to September 13.  Entities that received payments from the initial $30 million distribution and the subsequent $20 million distribution are eligible to apply for additional funding if those payments do not equal at least two percent of their annual net patient revenue.  Go here for information about the extension of the application deadline and [...]

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Monday, August 24. Provider Relief Fund:  A Reminder The deadline to apply for General Distribution Phase 2 Provider Relief Funds for Medicaid, CHIP, dental, and certain Medicare providers is this Friday, August 28.  Entities that received payments from the initial $30 million distribution and the subsequent $20 million distribution are eligible to apply for additional funding if those payments do not equal at least two percent of their annual net patient revenue.  Go here for information about eligibility and how to apply.​ Department of Health and Human Services [...]

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 3:00 p.m. on Friday, August 21.  Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS had updated its COVID-19 emergency declaration blanket waivers and flexibilities for health care providers. Among those flexibilities, CMS has postponed the September 1, 2020 deadline to submit wage index reclassification applications to the Medicare geographic classification review board  due to COVID-19. The deadline has been pushed back until 15 days after the public display date of the FY 2021 IPPS/LTCH final rule by the Office of the Federal Register. See page 10 for details. [...]

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 19. Provider Relief Fund HHS has updated its Provider Relief Fund FAQ with five new questions that which address the application process for the new children’s hospital and safety-net providers targeted distribution. The new questions can be found on pages 30, 31, 41, and 42 of the FAQ; new questions and answers are dated 8/17/2020 and 8/18/2020.   Department of Health and Human Services HHS has issued a third amendment under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) to expand [...]

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Friday, August 14. Provider Relief Fund HHS announced that it will distribute $1.4 billion in CARES Act Provider Relief Fund grants to nearly 80 free-standing children’s hospitals.  Qualifying children’s hospitals must be either an exempt hospital under CMS’s Medicare inpatient prospective payment system or be a HRSA-defined Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education facility.  Eligible hospitals will receive 2.5 percent of their net revenue from patient care.  Qualifying free-standing children’s hospitals will begin receiving grants next week.  Learn more from this HHS news release. Department [...]

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 11. Provider Relief Fund Eligible providers may now apply for Provider Relief Fund phase 2 general distributions. These are providers that are being given another opportunity to receive Provider Relief Fund payments after missing the June 3, 2020 deadline to apply for funding equal to two percent of their total patient care revenue from the $20 billion portion of the $50 billion phase 1 general distribution; this group also includes Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), dental providers with low Medicare revenues, [...]