HHS: Provider Relief Timing Determines Spending Deadline

Inside Health Policy
By Dorothy Mills-Gregg
 
...HHS’ announcement [on June 11th] creates four provider relief payments periods and gives providers one year to spend it all. For example, the upcoming deadline of June 30 applies to the payment period of April 10, 2020 to June 30, 2020, and the next deadline of Dec. 31 applies to monies received July 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2020.
 
Providers receiving more than $10,000 in relief during a payment period will have three months to report how they used it -- previous guidance gave them one month to submit all their expenditures and revenue separated by type and grouped by quarter. Providers who received $10,000 or less during a payment period will not have to submit a report for that period.
 
The audit requirements for provider relief recipients who received $750,000 or more appear to be unchanged. These reporting requirements do not apply to the rural health clinic COVID-19 testing program or the uninsured program.
 
HHS began distributing a large chunk of the $178 billion provider relief fund early on -- before June 30, 2020 -- with a $46 billion general distribution and $20 billion in targeted relief for hospitals in so-called hot spots, $13 billion for safety net hospitals and $11 billion for rural facilities.
 
The other general and targeted distributions, including the problematic second general distribution, went to providers no earlier than July 3, according to the Government Accountability Office. HHS is still distributing provider relief; the last distribution was announced in October.
 
“These updated requirements reflect our focus on giving providers equitable amounts of time for use of these funds, maintaining effective safeguards for taxpayer dollars, and incorporating feedback from providers requesting more flexibility and clarity about [provider relief fund] reporting,” said Diana Espinosa, acting administrator for the Health Resources and Services Administration, the agency that manages provider relief distributions...

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