The Senate has reached a bipartisan “agreement in principle” for a $10 billion COVID-19 relief bill, but the deal does not include dedicated funding to restart reimbursements to providers for uninsured care.
The potential deal will likely be voted on next week as senators wait for final language, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Massachusetts, one of the key negotiators on the package, told reporters. But the $10 billion figure is less than half the $22.5 billion the White House requested and less than the $15 billion that Democrats tried to insert into an omnibus spending package earlier this month.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, told reporters he did not think there was any money for providers to get uninsured claim reimbursement.
"Half of it is therapeutics and half of it is the [Department of Health and Human Sevices] secretary to use in a fairly, narrowly defined series of things that would include vaccines and research," he said.
Providers have not been able to get reimbursement for COVID-19 treatment and testing provided to uninsured patients since March 22, and the deadline for vaccine administration is April 5.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told a House appropriations panel Thursday that it was vital to approve additional relief funding, especially to help providers.
He said that after giving providers notice of the March 22 deadline for uninsured claims, the agency saw 2 million claims over eight days. Becerra is expecting a similar deluge of claims to occur before the April 5 deadline for providers to get reimbursed for COVID-19 vaccine administration uninsured claims.
Romney said a majority of the cuts would come from the American Rescue Plan with some from the CARES Act. But it remains unclear whether the final figure will be enough to convince Democrats in the House and Senate.
“Right now, with COVID continuing to race around the world, continuing to mutate … we need to put the money into vaccines not just here at home but all around the world,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts.