Letter to the Hon. Alex Azar, Secretary of the Dept. of Health and Human Services - Rep. Mike Levin Leads Bipartisan Letter with 72 House Colleagues Calling on HHS Sec. Azar to Direct Funds to Community Health Centers and Other Medicaid Providers

Letter

Dear Secretary Azar,

Thank you for your department's efforts to distribute the $100 billion fund provided under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act for health care providers. We urge you to support Medicaid providers in the next tranche of funds to cover unreimbursed health care related expenses or lost revenues attributable to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

The CARES Act specifies that this funding should benefit all types of health care providers including hospitals, public entities, nonprofit entities, and Medicare and Medicaid enrolled suppliers and institutional providers. On April 10, 2020, your department began distributing an initial $30 billion from this fund based on providers' share of 2019 Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) reimbursements.

We appreciate that hospitals on the front lines of this crisis received a large share of this desperately needed funding. However, health care providers in our districts with low Medicare volumes -- including community health centers (CHCs), children's hospitals, and certain nonprofit health care providers-- have also been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 emergency.

These providers desperately need more financial support to continue caring for our underserved communities. It is estimated that over the next six months due to COVID-19, CHCs will complete 34 million fewer regular appointments, leading to losses of $7.6 billion in revenue and 100,500 jobs.1 Meanwhile, they are experiencing or preparing for a surge of patients requiring testing and treatment for COVID-19. While we support additional appropriations to meet these needs, we must ensure they receive their fair share of existing funds in the near term.

Your department has stated that it intends to distribute the remaining $70 billion based on other criteria, including "providers of services with lower shares of Medicare reimbursement or who predominantly serve the Medicaid population." We express our support for swiftly allocating the next tranche of funds based on Medicaid volumes. Our providers cannot wait any longer for relief.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.