The funding is awarded through the CARES Act, will be used to help hospitals pay for the incurred costs of combating the COVID-19 pandemic. In the release the funds will also be used for buying more supplies, paying for overtime, and financing healthcare-related expenses of uninsured Americans who receive testing and treatment.

The CARES Act allocated a total of $100 billion for health care providers. The Department of Health and Human Services today distributed $30 billion of the $100 billion to hospitals across the country.

The congressman’s press release added that facilities and providers are allotted a portion of the $30 billion based on their share of 2019 Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) reimbursements.

These are payments, not loans, to healthcare providers, and will not need to be repaid.

• To expedite providers getting money as quickly as possible, $30 billion is being distributed immediately proportionate to providers’ share of Medicare fee-for- service reimbursements in 2019.
• These initial payments will begin being delivered on April 10, with $26 of the $30 billion expected to be delivered to providers’ bank accounts that day.
• Via a provider portal that will open up the week of April 13, providers will simply have to sign an attestation confirming receipt of funds and agree to the terms and conditions of payment within 30 days.
• As a condition to receiving these funds, providers must agree not to seek collection of out-of-pocket payments from a COVID-19 patient that are greater than what the patient would have otherwise been required to pay if the care had been provided by an in-network provider.
• This quick dispersal of funds will provide relief to both providers in COVID hotspot areas and those providers who are struggling to keep their doors open due to cancelled elective services.
• HHS and the Administration are rapidly working on future targeted distributions to hospitals and providers that will focus on providers in hotspot COVID areas, rural providers, and providers with lower shares of Medicare reimbursement or who predominantly serve the Medicaid population.