Health Law Attorney BlogHHS Announcement: $10 Billion Available for Hospitals in COVID-19 High Impact Areas But Hospitals Have Mere Hours to Apply
Today, April 22, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that $10 billion will be distributed to as grants hospitals in areas that have been particularly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes hospitals serving areas that have high percentages of confirmed COVID-19 cases (e.g., New York). However, to be eligible for this allocation, hospitals must the following information via an authentication portal before midnight Pacific Time, April 23, 2020:
- Tax Identification Number;
- National Provider Identifier;
- Total number of Intensive Care Unit beds as of April 10, 2020; and
- Total number of admissions with a positive diagnosis for COVID-19 from January 1, 2020 to April 10, 2020.
HHS has not provided a direct link to the authentication portal to submit the information. Rather, the HHS announcement stated that the authentication portal is live and that hospitals have already been contacted to submit this information. Based on HHS’ press release, it appears that qualifying hospitals should be able to expect HHS will reach out to them. However, any hospital that has seen significant numbers of COVID-19 patients and is in a high-impact area should not hesitate to contact HHS directly for further guidance.
HHS will review the data it receives from the hospital to determine where the impact from COVID-19 is greatest and distribute the targeted funds accordingly.
For more information regarding allocations to hospitals in COVID-19 high impact areas, please contact your regular HLP attorney, or Partners@thehlp.com, or call (212) 734-0128 or (248) 996-8510.