Hospitals Appeal Again To HHS For More Time To Spend Covid Relief Funds
Hospitals face a June 30 deadline to give back any unused Provider Relief Fund grants received more than a year prior. In other Biden administration news, next moves are debated on a new health agency and ways to fix the Affordable Care Act.
Modern Healthcare:
Hospitals Again Ask HHS For More Time To Spend Relief Funds
Hospitals are again pleading with the Biden administration for more time to spend COVID-19 relief grants received before June 30, 2020. HHS' latest guidance, released June 11, laid out four separate deadlines for when providers need to spend or return their Provider Relief Fund grants. But the deadline for returning money received before June 30, 2020 was unchanged: Providers will still have to give back any unspent money by June 30. In a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra this week, AHA CEO Rick Pollack urged him to let providers keep PRF money distributed before June 30, 2020 until the end of the COVID public health emergency or June 30, 2022, the final deadline in HHS' most recent guidance. (Bannow, 6/23)
Fierce Healthcare:
AHA Makes Last-Ditch Effort To Get HHS To Extend COVID Relief Fund Deadline
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is imploring the Biden administration to give some hospitals more time to spend their relief dollars ahead of a June 30 deadline. The AHA wrote to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra for flexibility on next week’s deadline as they warn that the pandemic is still impacting facilities. HHS did give providers more time to repay the relief funding, but only if the provider got that funding after June 30, 2020. Providers that got money before that date must still meet next week’s deadline. (King, 6/23)
In other news from the Biden administration —
The Washington Post:
The Under-The-Radar Fight Over A New Health Agency
There’s at least one proposal leftover from the Trump administration that President Biden is set on reviving: the creation of the Advance Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). In the administration’s debut budget proposal, the National Institutes of Health received $6.5 billion to launch the new agency modeled after the military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). ARPA-H would accelerate the development of medical treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and more. But there’s a battle brewing over where exactly the agency should be housed — and how it should be structured to have the most impact. (Alemany and Rji, 6/23)
Politico:
Obamacare Supporters See Opening To Shore Up Law After Court Win
After the latest Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare secured its survival, some of the law’s staunchest supporters have a clear message on what President Joe Biden should do next: Fix it. The Affordable Care Act, after more than a decade of political turmoil, has never loomed larger. The law provided a new safety net during the coronavirus pandemic, mostly through its expansion of Medicaid. The Biden administration has boosted federal aid to purchase Obamacare coverage, which could help bring in millions of new customers. Insurers who fled the marketplaces in the law’s turbulent early years have returned, lured partly by the richer government aid. (Luthi, 6/24)
Bloomberg Law:
Biden HHS Can Act Alone To Push Campaign Bid To Shrink Uninsured
The administration can act on its own to further President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to get more Americans affordable health coverage and shrink the number of uninsured, even though Congress is mulling broader measures. Tweaks to regulations under the Affordable Care Act and other health laws can be implemented while lawmakers debate major proposals to expand coverage, such as forcing several states to expand for Medicaid, the low-income health program. The administrative changes can make a big difference in the number of people who have insurance in the long term and aren’t likely to meet as much resistance as some of the measures on Capitol Hill. (Stein, 6/24)
Bloomberg Law:
HHS Can’t Ditch Drug Suits By Disavowing Letter, Attorneys Say
The Biden administration’s withdrawal of a Trump-era policy on prescription drug price cuts for low-income patients sets the stage for new tactics to incentivize cheaper medicines. Pharmaceutical companies vow to keep fighting. (Lopez, 6/24)
The Hill:
Biden Nominates Cindy McCain As Ambassador To UN Food Agency
McCain will need to be approved by the Senate in order to serve in the role, which involves representing the U.S. at a specialized U.N. agency focused on ending hunger and making sure people worldwide have access to good-quality food. (Chalfant, 6/23)
