House Health Care Committee Urges Legislature to Direct Additional CRF Funds to Health Care Stabilization Program
This
afternoon,
House Health Care Committee Chair Rep. Bill Lippert,
presented the Committee's
recommendations regarding how the
House Appropriations Committee should distribute Vermont's portion of
federal Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF). The recommendations direct $139
million to the Agency of Human Services (AHS) to establish a Health Care
Provider Stabilization Grant Program. While this is significantly less than the $375
million the Scott Administration proposed for this purpose, it
is the vast majority of funding the Health Care Committee was directed to
allocate by legislative leadership. The
Appropriations Committee is currently drafting CRF funding determinations for
all sectors across the State and is expected to move quickly. Chair Lippert
stated in his memo, "As the House Committee on Appropriations reviews
competing needs for CRF dollars, we strongly urge you to allocate as much CRF
funding as possible to stabilizing our Vermont health care providers, across the
health care continuum, to ensure that they emerge from this public health
emergency fully able to meet the continuing health care needs of
Vermonters." Please prepare to respond to an action alert asking
the legislature to allocate more funding to health care organizations and
practices.
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VMS Announces Group Purchasing Options for PPE
VMS realizes that Vermont medical practices are struggling to obtain various items of PPE and that both availability and cost are an issue. While we continue to advocate for more state-run purchasing options, we are also pleased to offer discount group purchasing options available now to our members. Click here to learn more about the available sources including: W.B. Mason (VMS group discount), Action PPE (group purchasing through VMS/State Medical Society consortium) and generally available sources of PPE through Project N95 and Amazon.
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Federal Provider Relief Fund Update – Additional Funds Available for Physicians
The AMA has continued to press HHS to swiftly distribute funds to assist those physicians who have not previously received any money from the federal Provider Relief Fund. The Department announced it is moving forward to provide some relief. HHS expects to distribute approximately $15 billion to eligible physicians and organizations that participate in state Medicaid and CHIP programs and have not received a payment from the Provider Relief Fund General Allocation. Starting June 10, HHS plans to launch a portal that will allow eligible physicians and organizations to report their annual patient revenue data and other necessary information to receive a payment equal to at least 2 percent of reported gross revenues from patient care.
To be eligible for this funding, health care providers must not have received payments from the $50 billion Provider Relief Fund General Distribution and either have directly billed their state Medicaid/CHIP programs or Medicaid managed care plans for healthcare-related services between January 1, 2018, to May 31, 2020. Close to one million health care providers may be eligible for this funding. More information about eligibility and the application process is available here.
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