Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) introduced the Provider Relief Fund Deadline Extension Act today, a bipartisan bill to extend the initial deadline for Provider Relief Fund (PRF) recipients to spend the funds they were given before having to return them.
“We established the Provider Relief Fund to offer financial assistance to members of our health care industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, but imprecise guidance from the Health and Human Services Department prevented many of the program’s first recipients from using the funds they received by the June 30, 2021, deadline,” said Senator Cramer. “Our bipartisan bill would give health care providers more time to use these resources by extending the spending deadline at least through the end of this year.”
The PRF was established through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to support health care providers as they responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) allocated $178 billion for the program, the department then announced that if providers do not use their allocated funds by a certain deadline, they are required to return the money to HHS. The department’s most recent change in reporting requirement guidance came less than one month prior to the first deadline to use the funds, which was on June 30, 2021.
Many hospitals, especially smaller ones in rural areas, are managing the funds they received to ensure the money can cover the influx in costs caused by COVID-19 beyond one year. In addition to covering expenses like salaries, rural hospitals are using PRF money to renovate buildings, which enables them to provide better care. The Provider Relief Fund Deadline Extension Act introduced today would move the spending deadline to either the end of 2021 or the end of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic public health emergency period, whichever is further away.
Representatives Cindy Axne (D-IA) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) will introduce companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.