AHA yesterday urged the Department of Health and Human Services to extend the deadline for hospitals and other health care providers to use their COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund payments until the end of the public health emergency. The current deadline is June 30. 

“While new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have slowed since the peak this winter, they are still significant,” AHA wrote. “For example, approximately 50,000 new cases of COVID-19 are still occurring each day. In addition, there are still more than 35,000 hospitalized COVID-19 inpatients, on average, over the last several days. Hospitals and health systems continue to incur expenses related to these COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, such as ensuring an adequate workforce, acquiring equipment and supplies such as personal protective equipment, pharmaceuticals and safety equipment, and maintaining testing and additional screening for every hospital patient. They absolutely should be able to apply their PRF funds toward these costs, which they will undoubtedly continue to incur beyond June 30 and through the end of the PHE.”

Related News Articles

Blog
The RAND Corporation recently released the fifth iteration of its biannual hospital price report. The AHA has previously highlighted significant flaws with…
Headline
Costs incurred after the public health emergency ends May 11 will not be eligible for funding under the COVID-19 Public Assistance Program, the Federal…
Headline
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Friday released additional guidance on changes to the Medicaid continuous enrollment requirement under…
Headline
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services seeks comments through Nov. 4 on the challenges individuals face accessing health care services through…
Headline
On Sept. 8 at 10 a.m. ET and 1 p.m. ET, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will repeat its recent webinar on a proposed new approach to…
Perspective
One important learning from the two-and-a-half-year COVID-19 pandemic is that the public health emergency (PHE) waivers made an enormous difference for…