On July 10, 2020, HHS announced over $4 billion in additional relief funding for certain hospitals impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new round includes payments of approximately $3 billion to safety net hospitals and approximately $1 billion to specialty rural hospitals, urban hospitals with certain rural Medicare designations, and hospitals in small metropolitan areas.

Additional $3 Billion to Safety Net Hospitals

HHS announced that it is expanding the criterion for relief payment qualification to safety net hospitals after learning some acute care hospitals did not qualify for the initial funding of $10 billion to safety net hospitals announced on June 9, 2020. HHS is expanding the payment criterion so that certain acute care hospitals meeting the revised profitability threshold of less than three percent averaged consecutively over two or more of the last five cost reporting periods – as reported to CMS in cost report filings – will now be eligible for payment. HHS expects to distribute over $3 billion across 215 acute care hospitals. Click here to see the state-by-state breakdown released by HHS.

Additional $1 Billion to Certain Rural Hospitals and Hospitals in Small Metropolitan Areas

Following its initial funding of $10 billion to rural providers announced on May 1, 2020, HHS is now expanding the existing payment formula to include “certain special rural Medicare designation hospitals in urban areas as well as others who provide care in smaller non-rural communities.” HHS noted that these may include certain suburban hospitals that are not considered rural but serve rural populations and operate with smaller profit margins more limited resources than larger hospitals. HHS estimates that the new funding will provide relief of over $1 billion to 500 of these hospitals. Click here to see the state-by-state breakdown released by HHS.

A copy of HHS’s July 10, 2020 press release is available here.