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Provider Relief Fund Reportedly Running Out
By: Emily H. Lineweaver
A report by Modern Healthcare asserts that the Provider Relief Fund (PRF), a program promulgated by the Health Resources and Services Administration that provides reimbursement to qualified healthcare providers for healthcare related expenses or lost revenues due to COVID-19, is expected to run out of money by the spring or summer.
The program has paid out more than $17 billion in Phase 4 funds to providers, leaving $7.6 billion left to disperse, and according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson, the fund that was allocated $178 billion by Congress at its inception, will run out in the coming months. The article states that “Congress isn’t currently considering making more funding available, meaning providers and patients are likely to soon have to bear the costs themselves.”
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is urging President Biden’s administration to distribute any unspent money by March 31, 2022. AHA is also urging Congress to authorize adding $25 billion more to the PRF. With the omicron surge subsiding and hospitalizations decreasing according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is unclear if Congress will add more funds. According to Chip Kahn, CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, “[s]o much depends on what the sense of the policymakers is when they’re pretty close to doing the bill and what their sense of the problem is at that point of time.”
