On Friday, August 7, 2020, HHS issued a press release detailing the next CARES Act-authorized Provider Relief Fund (PRF) distribution for nursing homes. The PRF distribution will total approximately $5 billion. Unlike previous distributions, a portion of the distribution will be linked to nursing home performance metrics. The non-performance-based distributions are expected to occur in mid-August while the performance-based distributions are scheduled to occur throughout the fall.

First announced in late July, the $5 billion disbursements will be administered to nursing homes through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) under the $2 trillion stimulus package authorized under the CARES Act. The press release indicates that approximately $2.5 billion of the funding is available to support increased testing, staffing, and PPE needs. There will also be funding available for establishing COVID-19 isolation facilities.

The remaining of the $5 billion will be linked to nursing home performance. According to the press release, CMS will consider the prevalence of the virus in the nursing home’s local geography and will base its evaluation of performance on the nursing home’s ability within this context to minimize COVID-19 spread and related fatalities among its residents. In a statement by HHS Secretary Alex Azar, “linking these funds to performance in controlling COVID-19 . . . provid[es] powerful tools and incentives for nursing homes to better protect their residents from the virus.” According to the press release, the performance-based distribution for nursing homes comes in light of almost 40% of all U.S. COVID-19 deaths categorized as nursing-home related.

The press release is available here.