Home Health & Hospice Week

June 30 deadline is fast approaching.

If you're among the providers that don’t think they'll be able to use up their Provider Relief Fund payments on eligible items by the June 30 deadline, you may get a reprieve.

On May 10, a number of heavy-hitter hospital lobbying groups including the American Hospital Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges, sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, urging HHS to extend the June 30 deadline. “Instead use as a guideline the length of the Public Health Emergency (PHE),” the letter exhorts. “The work of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic continues, despite the relief that is currently being provided by an increase in vaccination levels.”

The nine hospital groups also asked HHS to “intercede … and provide critical assistance by expending the remaining PRF resources and tying the utilization date to the PHE,” according to the letter.

A May 11 letter from 79 members of the U.S. House of Representatives called for the same thing, noting that “it is critical that every dollar of assistance to our health care providers can go as far as possible to keep people safe and healthy” and that “providers are still delivering complex care for patients with COVID-19 and coping with higher procurement costs for personal protective equipment (PPE).”

At a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on May 12, Becerra seemed receptive to the idea. He said the Biden administration is considering the extension and that the decision will be “driven by facts,” according to press reports. He also said there’s about $25 billion left in the CARES Act PRF.