Updated April 8, 9:30 a.m.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has updated its website with more information on how providers who missed the first reporting period due to "extenuating circumstances" can submit a request to file a late report.
Per the website, providers may submit their request from April 11 to April 22 using a form that will be made available beginning April 11.
HRSA also provided more specifics about what qualifies as "extenuating circumstances" that would qualify for late reporting: severe illness or death, impact by a natural disaster, lack of receipt of reporting communications, failure to click "submit," incomplete targeted distribution payments and internal miscommunication or error.
"Please note that submission of a Request to Report Late Due to Extenuating Circumstances does not guarantee the request will be approved or that a provider will be allowed to enter the PRF Reporting Portal to complete and submit a report," the agency wrote. "Approval or denial of requests are subject to determination by HRSA."
Following industry outcry, HRSA is giving another chance to providers who were unable to report on COVID-19 pandemic assistance “as a result of specific extenuating circumstances,” according to a notice recently added to the Provider Relief Funding Reporting Requirements and Auditing page of the agency’s website.
HRSA’s notice did not detail which circumstances will qualify providers for the new reporting window but told readers to “monitor this webpage for additional information coming soon.”
“The American Medical Association [AMA] applauds the Biden Administration for recognizing the difficulties facing physician groups and providing another opportunity to report on the proper use of COVID-19 relief funds,” AMA President Gerald Harmon, M.D., said in a statement.
The update came shortly after a report from Bloomberg Law that the administration planned to claw back up to $100 million in Provider Relief Fund assistance from those who didn’t meet reporting requirements.
Providers who had received more than $10,000 in COVID-19 relief from HRSA during the first reporting period—between April 10, 2020, and June 30, 2020—were initially required to disclose how they had spent their funds by September 2021, although the agency delayed that deadline and subsequent compliance by roughly four months.
In early March, HRSA began sending notices to non-compliant facilities that they would have 30 days to repay funds before the agency would “initiate the recovery of all funds not reported on” during the first reporting period, according to a letter viewed by Fierce Healthcare.
Within weeks 32 national medical specialty groups including the AMA and the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) penned a letter to HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson asking for more flexibility, particularly for small, rural and understaffed physician practices that could not meet the deadline for other reasons outside of their control.
In response to the reopening decision, AMA’s Harmon asked the agency “to broadly apply the extenuating circumstances exception as we have heard from many small and rural practices that they were unaware of the reporting requirements last fall during the delta wave. Recouping these funds now would aggravate the precarious financial situation facing practices as they contend with the ongoing public health emergency.”
Claire Ernst, MGMA's director of government affairs, said her organization was "encouraged" by HRSA's decision and similarly called for the agency to be liberal with its "extenuating circumstances."
"With the deadline to return funds around the corner, we would also urge HRSA to communicate any and all information regarding submitting reports as quickly and efficiently as possible via multiple platforms to ensure all recipients are aware of these changes,” she told Fierce Healthcare.
Many of the challenges providers faced back during the original reporting period, such as staffing shortages and tight financials, have yet to be resolved.
At the same time, the federal reimbursement program for COVID-19 testing and treatment claims closed shop two weeks ago while today marks the last full day that HRSA said it would be accepting claims for COVID-19 vaccination.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra recently told Congress that the agency received 2 million claims for uninsured COVID-19 testing and treatment in the eight days prior to the coverage deadline. The agency was expecting a similar flood leading up to today’s deadline, he said, underscoring the need for additional relief funding.
Word from Capitol Hill is that the Senate has recently come to terms on an additional $10 billion in COVID-19 relief funding—well below the Biden administration’s initial ask. That package is largely comprised of repurposed funds that were previously allocated by Congress and generally do not include international aid.
The administration has yet to roll out the last of its Provider Relief Fund payments. The latest $413 million batch came March 22, with HHS noting that 11% of applications for the program’s fourth tranche have yet to be processed.
Industry groups have called on Congress to allocate funds for another wave of relief, often noting that the money currently being distributed only covers providers’ COVID-19 expenses preceding the pandemic’s severe delta and omicron waves.