In a letter dated June 11, 2020, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) urged HHS Secretary Alex Azar to take measures to increase transparency around funds distributed by HHS to healthcare providers in connection with the COVID-19 public health emergency under the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund (also known as the Provider Relief Fund) and the Medicare Accelerated and Advanced Payment Program. Between these two programs, HHS has allocated almost $210 billion to providers to date and has plans to distribute an additional $65 billion. The letter asks HHS to provide a more comprehensive public source of information regarding these distributions.
HHS has already released certain data concerning these distributions, including a list of providers who have submitted attestations for their distributions from the Provider Relief Fund and certain provider-level data concerning advanced payments. Senators Grassley and Wyden objected that the Provider Relief Fund dataset does not include a breakdown of how much each provider has received from each distribution and lacks unique identifiers such as National Provider Identifier (NPI) numbers. The Senators raised similar objections to the advanced payment data, noting that it does not distinguish between Part A and Part B funds and also lacks NPI numbers.
The letter calls for HHS to provide a “single, comprehensive public source that includes meaningful data,” in order to assess the provision of funds to date, understand the extent to which constituent providers have received funds, inform appropriate distribution of the remaining $65 billion, evaluate the pause of the Accelerated and Advanced Payment Program, and assess future needs. The letter also asks HHS to release details regarding the reports that providers receiving over $150,000 from the Provider Relief Fund will be required to submit to HHS.
Please click here for a copy of the letter. A press release from Senator Grassley’s office concerning the letter is available here.
