The COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund: following how the US Department of Health and Human Services distributed $178 billion
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- Coughlin, Teresa A., author
- Contributor(s):
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, issuing body. Urban Institute, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, August 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- COVID-19 Financing, Government -- economics Health Equity -- economics Health Personnel -- economics Health Policy Social Mobility United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Since March 2020, Congress has allocated $178 billion to the COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund. Established under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the fund was meant to help providers “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus” and to “reimburse…eligible health care providers for health care related expenses or lost revenues that are attributable to coronavirus.” Passed in March 2020, the CARES Act allocated $100 billion for the fund. One month later, the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act allocated $75 billion, which was followed by an additional $3 billion from the Consolidated Appropriations Act in 2021.3 Unlike some other pandemic health care relief efforts, provider relief funds are grants and do not have to be repaid so long as providers meet the fund’s terms and conditions. From the outset, the fund has faced sharp criticism. Early on, stakeholders expressed concern that the fund’s eligibility criteria systematically disadvantaged providers that were already underresourced, especially safety net hospitals on the front lines of the pandemic response. Congressional leaders and stakeholders also raised concerns that funds were not being released in a timely matter. Most recently, stakeholders have pushed for more funding for providers, citing difficulty getting back to prepandemic operations, mounting labor costs, and the fact that the fund has not distributed relief funds to help providers handle expenses related to the delta or omicron variant surges, among other issues. In this brief, we use the most recent publicly available information to update our earlier work and review how fund grants have been allocated and paid to providers meeting the specified criteria.8 Our analysis revealed the following takeaways: (1) As the pandemic evolved, so did the Provider Relief Fund. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) made multiple distributions using a range of allocation formulas and eligibility criteria, which sometimes sparked controversy among both congressional lawmakers and industry groups. (2) Nearly two years after Congress first approved provider relief funding, all funds were allocated as of February 2022, and HHS had distributed most but not all of the $178 billion in funds. 9 Since February, the agency has released more funds, so it is likely that the Provider Relief Fund is largely depleted as of July 2022. (3) Although funds are nearly exhausted, the fund balance may increase. Some providers have chosen to return grants because they did not need the money, while others have returned grants because they cannot meet the terms and conditions set out by HHS. 10 Indeed, providers have already returned nearly $10 billion, with more likely to come. Given the controversy surrounding the Provider Relief Fund as well as the importance of these grants to providers, continuing to follow the fund will provide valuable lessons for the pandemic recovery and future policymaking.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (17 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918471488706676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918471488706676