CMS announced April 9 that it has delivered more than $51 billion in
payments to hospitals and other healthcare providers in the past week
through the Accelerated and Advance Payment Program.
CMS expanded the
payment program to a broader group of healthcare providers in late
March to help offset the financial impact of COVID-19. On April 7, the
agency said it had distributed
$34 billion in funds to healthcare providers and suppliers through the
program in the past week. Two days later, CMS said the amount had grown
to $51 billion.
CMS has received roughly 32,000 requests from healthcare providers
and suppliers for advance payments in the past week, and 21,000 of those
requests have been approved. That’s compared to the 100 total requests
CMS approved in the past five years.
To help hospitals under financial strain due to COVID-19, CMS has
reduced the processing time for advance payment requests to less than
one week, compared to the previous time frame of three to four weeks.
Acute care hospitals, children’s hospitals, critical access hospitals
and some cancer hospitals can request up to six months of advance
Medicare payments through the program.
The payments are not part of the $100 billion emergency fund authorized
in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to reimburse
healthcare providers for expenses or lost revenue related to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The advance payments are a loan that healthcare
providers must pay back, while funding provided under the CARES Act does
not need to be repaid.
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/cms-sends-51b-in-advance-payments-to-hospitals.html
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