Congress provided relief for Americans, businesses, and healthcare institutions through a record stimulus deal in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES).
Providers and facilities were granted financial relief through the Provider Relief Fund, which was established through the CARES Act. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) was tasked with coordinating this financial assistance. As of this date, the HHS has issued 3 phases of general and targeted distributions for those providers and facilities that were hardest hit. As with any relief, the government is assigning responsibility to report on the use of these funds.
HHS has published a list of recipients, which can be found here. Recipients can reference this list to confirm the amount received.
For those recipients who received less than $10,000, there is no reporting obligation.
Recipients who received $10,000 or more are required to provide HHS an accounting on the use of funds through December 31, 2020. Recipients will identify additional costs incurred in response to COVID, net of all other government relief. Once those expenses are identified and if there are additional funds remaining, the HHS funds can be applied against lost revenue. Finally, recipients will have a second opportunity to account for additional costs or lost revenue in 2021 and the reporting deadline for this second round is scheduled to be June 30, 2021.
Recipients that received and spent $750,000 or more are required to comply with Single Audit requirements.
Originally, the portal was targeted to open on January 15, 2021with a reporting deadline of February 15, 2021. As of January 15th, HHS modified this requirement and issued its third update on reporting. The link to the updated reporting requirements can be found here.
Registration is now open for reporting. Recipients must register at the Provider Relief Fund Reporting Portal. This is a different portal from the attestation portal that was used when the funds were originally deposited. This is also different from the portal used to apply for the Phase 3 distribution. Recipients can access the reporting portal here.
Once recipients are registered, HHS will email the registered user with next steps. As of this writing, those that registered on January 15th have not received this email, so the timing on this next step is still unclear.
KHA would recommend that if recipients are subject to this reporting requirement that they register as soon as convenient.
KHA has established a team of professionals within our healthcare industry specialization that have focused time in understanding these reporting requirements. We are positioned to assist with this process. Please do not hesitate to reach out to KHA with any additional questions you may have.
For general information on HHS reporting and auditing, please visit: https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/cares-act-provider-relief-fund/reporting-auditing/index.html
For answers to frequently asked questions regarding the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund, please visit: https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/cares-act-provider-relief-fund/faqs/index.html
As your trusted advisors, we are committed to keeping you well-informed with regard to HHS and financial relief offered for healthcare providers and facilities. Please sign up for updates as we will continue to publish information on any new relief targeted at the healthcare industry.
These sources are simply included for informational purposes. KHA Accountants, PLLC, its partners and others do not provide any assurance as to the accuracy of these items or the information included therein. As such, KHA Accountants, PLLC cannot be held liable for any information derived from referenced sources. This is intended for illustrative and discussion purposes only.