April 23, 2020 By: How the Remaining HHS Relief Funds Will Be Distributed to the Medical Community It appears that the government has decided how they will be distributing the remaining $70 billion dollars of healthcare stimulus money. As you will recall, the original fund was $100 billion. The Health and Human Services department (HSS) distributed the first $30 billion to providers based on annual collections from Medicare. For providers who do little or no Medicare business, they received zero or a very small amount of relief. At this time, it is projected that the remaining money will be broken down as follows: $20 billion to hospitals and providers based on 2018 gross revenue $10 billion to hospitals in hard-hit areas like NYC $10 billion to rural hospitals $400 million to Indian Health Services After that, the remaining money will be allocated in different ways. It is anticipated at this time that the remaining will be used for a possible second wave of COVID-19 hot spots, uninsured patient services, skilled nursing facilities, and providers who see Medicaid (MA) patients. Therefore, your practice will probably receive additional money from this bucket if it sees MA patients. There is going to be a fund to pay providers who see uninsured patients for COVID-19 services starting with dates of service 2/4/20 forward. These claims will be paid at Medicare rates. Practices must sign-up to submit these claims beginning 4/27/20 at www.hrsa.gov/coviduninsuredclaim. The HHS has set-up portals for hospitals and providers to log onto and enter specific information they will need from each healthcare organization/practice to allocate funds. Currently, they are set-up to accept hospital information. The data they are requesting is quite simple to gather and report (ie., TIN, NPI, total ICU beds as of 4/10/20 and the total number of COVID-19 admissions since 1/1/20). The provider portal and list of the requested information is supposed to go live shortly at hhs.gov/provider-relief/. HHS will calculate the amounts for each practice and will disburse funds weekly on a rolling basis beginning on 4/24/20. Each practice that submits their data will receive their pro-rata share of the $20 billion based on the information provided to the HHS. In order to prepare, you will want to pull your data for 2018 including total revenue, NPI, and TIN for now. It is uncertain if there will be other information they will request. The money will be electronically deposited into the practice business bank account, similar to the process used for the Medicare allocation money received by many practices on 4/10/20. In addition, you will need to “attest” that you will use the money as specified. (For an attestation form, click here.) We will continue to monitor this stimulus money and any other loans, grants, or stimulus funding available for practices. In the meantime, if you have questions or concerns about this item or others please contact your KatzAbosch representative. Learn more about our healthcare consulting services or speak to a medical practice management consultant today. Stay well and be safe. We are Strong Together! Learn more about our medical practice management consulting services. Article by: How the Remaining HHS Relief Funds Will Be Distributed to the Medical Community,
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