Home Health & Hospice Week

Keep up with CMS’ funding course correction.

The lesson to be learned from COVID-19 funding so far is that the early bird gets the worm.

Why? Under the CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), early applicants succeeded in securing funding, while later applicants lost out when the fund ran out of money on April 16 (although a new round of funding has become available). And now the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has slammed the door shut on advanced and expanded accelerated payments.

“CMS will not be accepting any new applications for the Advance Payment Program,” which applies to Part B providers, and “will be reevaluating all pending and new applications for Accelerated Payments in light of historical direct payments made available through the Department of Health & Human Services’ (HHS) Provider Relief Fund,” CMS says in an April 26 release.

CMS indicates that providers should have received enough financial help already. Medicare has paid more than $100 billion through the Advance Payment and Accelerated Payments programs, it says. Plus, $175 billion has been “recently appropriated for healthcare provider relief payments” — $100 billion from the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund and $75 billion from the newly enacted Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act.

But there might still be a crack in the door. Unlike with advance payments, CMS merely says it “will be reevaluating all pending and new applications for Accelerated Payments.” In theory, an application could still succeed, but only using the usual criteria.