American Hospital Association, Others Press Congress for More COVID Money as Variants Strain Systems

Struggling hospitals and healthcare providers are asking the U.S. government to disburse remaining Provider Relief Fund (PRF) relief monies, and expand them, as the toll of two years of disruption and six months of COVID variants finds health systems still ailing from a cash crunch.

In a Jan. 20 letter to House and Senate leaders, American Hospital Association (AHA) Executive Vice President Stacey Hughes wrote, “While the PRF has been a lifeline for health care providers, no distributions from the PRF have been made or announced for expenses related to the delta or omicron variant surges, despite steep increases in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.”

Hughes added, “The lack of PRF dollars to address issues wrought by the delta and omicron surges has left many hospitals facing overwhelming financial and operational challenges. Compounding this issue has been uncertainty and confusion around the federal rules for previously allotted PRF funding that have hindered many providers from using the funds within the allotted timeframes.”

A week earlier, advocacy group the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra asking HHS to “renew the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) declaration for at least another 90 days.”

As news site Healthcare Finance reported, “The AHA wants Medicare sequester relief to be extended until the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency or Dec. 31, 2022, whichever is later,” adding that AHA is also asking Congress “to suspend Accelerated and Advance repayments for six months and allow for recoupment after the repayment suspension at 25% of Medicare claims payments for the following 12 months.”

Many hospitals and healthcare practices are still counting on the funds as COVID disruptions remain a very real threat to ongoing operations, elective surgeries and income streams generally.

Hughes wrote, “These payments have served as a critical lifeline to hospitals and health systems, providing crucial funding to support the front-line heroes treating patients, build new sites of care to minimize the spread of the virus, and purchase the ventilators, drugs and supplies to care for the critically ill. However, the requirement to repay these funds places hospitals and health systems back in financial jeopardy while they work to recover from this unprecedented pandemic.”

In its letter, the AHA is also requesting “additional PRF dollars in the amount of $25 billion to health care providers who continue to have lost revenues and increased expenses due to the tremendous financial strain that the delta and omicron variant are causing.”

A recent Urban Policy Institute analysis found that of $178 billion allocated to the PRF since March 2020 “$26.8 billion [remained] in the fund as of October 2021. In addition, the fund balance will likely grow soon, because some providers will need to return unspent grants, as required under recent guidance issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services.”

In December, HHS announced it is disbursing $9 billion more through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in Phase 4 PRF funds.

“The average payment being announced today for small providers is $58,000, for medium providers is $289,000, and for large providers is $1.7 million. More than 69,000 providers in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and eight territories will receive Phase 4 payments” HHS said.

Those payments were to begin last month.

See also: US Hospitals Ask For More Time To Spend COVID Funds