The U.S. Department of Health and Services (HHS) has announced an additional $10 billion in funding for hospitals with the greatest burden of caring for those with COVID-19. As with previous hot spot funding, HHS is asking hospitals to submit information, including the facility Medicare tax identification number and total number of COVID-19 positive admissions from Jan. 1 – June 10, 2020.
Hospitals must submit this data to be eligible for payments, though submitting the data does not guarantee eligibility for funding. The deadline for submission is Monday, June 15 at 6:00 p.m. PST. Data should be submitted via the TeleTracking website. The American Hospital Association also published a special bulletin with further details.
HHS also announced that additional funding from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund will be disbursed this week to hospitals that serve a disproportionate number of Medicaid patients or provider large amounts of uncompensated care. HHS identified eligible hospitals as those with:
- A Medicare Disproportionate Payment Percentage (DPP) of 20.2 percent or greater
- Average uncompensated care per bed of $25,000 or more
- Profitability of 3 percent or less, as reported to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the most recently filed cost report
All three of these criteria must be met to receive payment. More information is available in the HHS press release available online.
