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Elizabeth M. Whitehorn, Director

Provider Notice Issued 06/12/2020

​Date:    June 12, 2020

 

To:       All Medical Assistance Program Providers

 

Re:      Federal Provider Relief Fund Payments for Medicaid and CHIP Providers and Safety Net Hospitals, and Data Request for Second Round of COVID-19 Hotspot Funding for All Hospitals

 

 

On Tuesday, June 9, 2020, federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new provider portal available on their website that will allow Medicaid and CHIP providers that did not receive federal CARES Act funding from the Provider Relief Fund General Allocation to submit a request. The pool of available federals funds totals approximately $15 billion nationwide. This is a time sensitive opportunity for many of our Medicaid provider partners. Please review these details with urgency. The announcement about the CMS portal and additional information about the COVID-19 CARES Act Provider Relief Fund can be found on the CMS website.

 

To access the available funds, providers must meet the following criteria:

 

  • Eligibility: Any Medicaid provider that did not receive a funding award from the first $50 billion in awards made to providers with some level of Medicare utilization, and that directly billed a state Medicaid program or Medicaid managed care plan between January 1, 2018 and May 31, 2020. Providers must have provided patient care after January 31, 2020 and not have permanently ceased providing patient care; providers who did not receive an award from the Provider Relief Fund General Allocation, but who did receive a subsequent award from a targeted distribution, are also eligible for this new round of funding;
  • Process: Providers submit information to HHS’s CARES Relief Fund Portal; review Instructions and a Worksheet;
  • Providers will need: TIN, proof of certain federal employment, revenue and tax information, and to attest to certain conditions; 
  • Award Amounts: Minimum of two percent of gross patient care revenues, with final amount determined by provider-submitted data including number of Medicaid patients served;
  • Examples of providers possibly eligible for this funding: pediatricians, obstetrician-gynecologists, dentists, opioid treatment and behavioral health providers, supportive living and other home and community-based services providers;
  • Deadline for submission: July 20, 2020.

 

CMS also announced a dedicated $10 billion award for safety net hospitals which will be sent via direct deposit. These hospitals will receive a minimum award of $5 million and a maximum of $50 million if they meet the following criteria:

 

  • A Medicare Disproportionate Payment Percentage (DPP) of 20.2 percent or greater;


  • Average Uncompensated Care per bed of $25,000 or more. For example, a hospital with 100 beds would need to provide $2,500,000 in Uncompensated Care in a year to meet this requirement;
  • Profitability of 3 percent or less, as reported to CMS in its most recently filed Cost Report.
  • CMS will be sending these payments via direct deposit.

 

Based on a state-by-state list, CMS appears to have identified 38 safety net hospitals in Illinois meeting the criteria for total payments of $484 million dollars. HFS does not have any additional information beyond this list and HFS had no input in the funding determination.

 

Federal HHS also requested updated data from all hospitals to inform a second round of funding to hospitals in COVID-19 hotspots. Federal HHS communicated to all hospitals directly on Monday, June 8, requesting them to update their COVID-19 positive admission date from January 1, 2020 through June 10, 2020. To be determined eligible for this second tranche of funding, totaling $10 billion, hospitals must update their information no later than June 15, 2020 8:00pm CST. Hospitals should look for direct communications from federal HHS on updating this information.

 

While HFS has provided information to our federal partners, we have nothing to do with the distribution of these funds. We are issuing this provider notice to make you aware of the opportunities and deadlines associated with the federal funds. We will also be announcing state-run distribution of CARES funding in the coming weeks; however, we encourage providers who might qualify for the above federal opportunity to submit their information to the federal portal as soon as possible. Please continue to monitor HFS provider notices for future CARES Act funding and other COVID-19 related announcements.

 

 

 

Kelly Cunningham

Interim Medicaid Administrator