CARES Act Provider Relief Fund (PRF)

Health care providers who received Provider Relief Fund and/or American Rescue Plan Rural payments exceeding $10,000 total between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2021, must report to the Health Resources and Services Administration by this March 31 on how they used those funds or face enforcement actions.
The Wall Street Journal today published an article examining the federal government’s distribution of COVID-19 emergency funding to hospitals through the Provider Relief Fund (PRF).
The reality is that all of America’s hospitals and health systems, regardless of size, location and financial status stepped forward to provide essential care and keep communities safe during this historic pandemic.
The Health Resources and Services Administration this week opened the Provider Relief Fund reporting portal through Dec. 2 for health care providers authorized to report late on how they used PRF payments received between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2021 that totaled over $10,000.
HHS through the HRSA is making more than $142 million in Provider Relief Fund Phase 4 General Distribution payments to more than 150 providers across the country.
All of America’s hospitals and health systems, regardless of size, location and ownership type have provided essential care to their patients and communities during this historic COVID-19 pandemic, all while facing tremendous financial challenges and pressures.
Health care providers who received approval to submit a late report for Period 2 must do so by June 14.
AHA urges Congress to provide support as hospitals contend with an exhausted workforce, backlogs of care deferred by the pandemic, cracks in the supply chain and a tsunami of financial challenges.
A recent op-ed in the online publication STAT (Turn off the spigot for hospitals’ COVID-19 relief funding) contains blatant factual inaccuracies but also omits critical information about hospital and health systems’ finances and input costs.
The original deadline to request an exception for reporting period 2 was May 13.