HHS Updates Reporting Requirements for COVID-19 Relief Funds, Adds Spending Flexibility
HHS Updates Reporting Requirements for COVID-19 Relief Funds, Adds Spending Flexibility
Courtesy of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice
On June 11, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released revised reporting requirements for the Provider Relief Fund (PRF), which bolstered health care providers facing major revenue problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. HHS also added flexibility for providers to spend funding if they received it after June 30, 2020. However, any money a provider received from July 1 through December 31, 2020, must be spent by December 31, 2021.
The June 30, 2021 deadline for providers to use COVID-19 relief funds received from April 30, 2020, through June 30, 2020, remains intact.
Providers that received money from January 1, 2021, through June 30, 2021, have until June 30, 2022, to use those funds. Any money received from July 1, 2021, through December 31, 2021, must be spent by December 31, 2022.
“These updated requirements reflect our focus on giving providers equitable amounts of time for use of these funds, maintaining effective safeguards for taxpayer dollars, and incorporating feedback from providers requesting more flexibility and clarity about PRF reporting,” said Diana Espinosa, Acting Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
Funding recipients must now also report for each payment received period when they received one or more payments over $10,000.
“We are pleased that the Department of Health and Human Services is providing a limited extension on providers’ use of funds, and we are pleased to see some clarification on reporting,” said National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) President Bill Dombi in reaction to the news. “We do hope HHS will consider further extensions on the use of funds due to the immense pressures on providers brought on by the public health emergency.”
The reporting requirements do not apply to COVID-19 coverage assistance funds, the Rural Health Clinic COVID-19 Testing Program, or the HRSA uninsured program.
A reporting portal for providers will be opened on July 1, 2021.
Reportedly, about $24 billion of the $178 billion in the provider relief fund has not been distributed.