HHS Announces Enhanced Provider Relief Fund and Portal

On June 9, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), announced new redistributions from the Provider Relief Fund to eligible Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) providers who participate in those programs. As a result, HHS plans to distribute approximately $15 billion to Medicaid and CHIP program participants who have not received a payment from the Provider Relief Fund General Allocation.

The first round of payments only made it to approximately 62 percent of all participating providers. This redistribution is intended to allow for payments to be made to the remaining 38 percent of participating providers who were left out of the first round. As a result, payments are expected to reach hundreds of thousands of additional providers who are struggling amid the current pandemic.

In addition to these redistributions, HHS is also launching an enhanced Provider Relief Fund Payment Portal. This portal will allow Medicaid and CHIP providers to report the annual patient revenue used to determine their relief fund payments. Individual payments to providers will be a minimum of 2 percent of the reported gross income from patient care and the final amount paid will only be determined after this data is submitted along with the number of Medicaid patients served by the provider.

To be eligible for this round of funding, participating providers must not have received payments from the initial round of the Provider Relief Fund General Distribution. They also must have directly billed either their respective state Medicaid/CHIP programs or Medicaid-managed care plans for healthcare-related services between January 1, 2018 and May 31, 2020.

For more information on eligibility and the application process, use this link.

For updates and data on the Provider Relief Fund, use this link.