Washington, DC - Energy and Commerce Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR) and Subcommittee on Health Republican Leader Dr. Michael Burgess (R-TX) released the following statement after the Trump Administration announced $22 billion in provider relief payments. This funding was provided in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
“Each day we are reminded that our health care workers are truly heroes. We owe it to every provider on the front lines to make sure they have the resources they need to continue fighting this pandemic. We commend the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to prioritize the resources provided in the CARES Act for hospitals hardest hit by COVID-19, and for facilities treating large numbers of low-income and uninsured patients. We’re also pleased by their ongoing support of rural providers. We will continue to work with the administration on implementation of the CARES Act and to ensure the resources provided by Congress are strategically deployed around the country," said Walden and Burgess.
Background:
The CARES Act allocated $100 billion for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund to help providers and other health care entities that are responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Leaders Walden and Burgess released a statement on April 14, 2020 after receiving assurances from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) they would prioritize rural areas, hot spots, and providers with large Medicare Advantage and Medicaid patient populations in future payments.
Yesterday, the administration announced they would provide roughly $12 billion for 395 facilities that treated 100 or more COVID-19 patients through April 10 and $10 billion for rural hospitals. According to HHS, those 395 hospitals accounted for 71 percent of COVID-19 impatient admissions reported to HHS from nearly 6,000 hospitals around the country. $2 billion of this disbursement will go to hospitals that have treated uninsured and low-income patients based on Medicare and Medicaid disproportionate share and uncompensated care payment data. Recipients of the $10 billion rural distribution will include: rural acute care general hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), Rural Health Clinics (RHCs), and Community Health Centers located in rural areas. Hospitals and RHCs will each receive a minimum base payment plus a percent of their annual expenses. You can find the full announcement HERE and the $12 billion payment breakdown HERE.
On April 22, HHS announced an additional round of payments, which you can read more about HERE. HHS had already disbursed $30 billion to nearly 500,000 providers based on Medicare fee-for-service data from fiscal year 2019.
The latest COVID-19 response package included an additional $75 billion for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund. That legislation was signed by President Trump on April 24, 2020.
