Healthcare Still Waiting on $121B in COVID-19 Financial Relief

So far, about $291 billion of COVID-19 financial relief for the healthcare industry has been disbursed or committed, leaving about $121 billion still up for grabs, the Committee for a Responsible Budget recently reported.

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According to the non-partisan group’s new interactive COVID Money Tracker tool, at least $412 billion has been authorized by Congress, the Federal Reserve, and the Administration to go to healthcare stakeholders to offset the massive revenue hits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hospitals lost nearly $51 billion a month fighting COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic and are slated to lose at least $323 billion by the end of the year, the American Hospital Association projects. But the facilities are not the only providers experiencing dramatic revenue losses.

Primary care physicians have already lost $15 billion because of canceled or postponed office visits, Harvard Medical School and American Board of Family Medicine recently estimated. And nursing homes are facing a financial crisis, according to industry groups.

The government has allocated COVID-19 relief funds to healthcare providers, including direct payments.

About three-quarters of COVID-19 financial relief for the healthcare industry, including about $300 billion of the $412 billion authorized and approximately $220 billion of the $291 billion disbursed or committed, is in the form of direct relief to hospitals and other healthcare providers, the Committee’s Tracker showed.

That includes a Provider Relief Fund established by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which allocated $175 billion in grants specifically for hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, and other types of healthcare providers.

As of August 26, 2020, healthcare providers have received or are committed to receiving $117 billion of the Provider Relief Fund, on top of additional relief, such as the repeal of the Medicare sequester, expansion of Medicare telehealth coverage, and adjustments to post-acute payments, the Committee found.

Additionally, providers received $100 billion in administrative funds in the form of advanced payments from Medicare and $58 billion in loans primarily from the Paycheck Protection Program.

Remaining authorized funds for the healthcare industry included about $32 billion for COVID-19 preparedness and response, almost $9 billion of healthcare-related tax breaks, and several billions in additional spending. Although the COVID Money Tracker could not pinpoint the amount disbursed to providers from most of these funds.

That leaves at least about $58 billion in grants left for healthcare providers through the Provider Relief Fund and about $63 billion in other COVID-19 financial relief, according to the Committee’s analysis.

Healthcare providers are desperate to get their hands on direct COVID-19 relief payments, with industry groups representing all types of providers calling on the federal government to increase aid to providers.

The AHA, American Medical Association, and American Nurses Association, for example, recently called for at least another $100 billion in funds in the next COVID-19 relief package.

“America’s front line health care personnel continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic as it continues to spike in numerous states including Texas, Florida, California and Arizona,” the associations wrote in a letter to Senate lawmakers on July 22, 2020. “The number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase across the country at rates exceeding those during the Spring of 2020, and we are concerned additional COVID-19 spikes in other states in the near future will continue to stress the entire health care system.”

Other healthcare stakeholders are also concerned about a potential second wave of the virus and how managing a global pandemic alongside the notoriously difficult flu season will impact healthcare providers.

Providers can expect another $58 billion in grants from the government, but $53 billion of that is unallocated according to the Tracker and the Administration has promised to dedicate an undisclosed sum of the funds to reimbursement for the treatment of uninsured COVID-19 patients.

Neither the Tracker nor the Administration identified how much has been disbursed or committed for these reimbursements. Reports have also revealed that patients are still getting bills for COVID-19 care despite the Administration’s vow to cover the uninsured.