Hospitals across the country are again receiving emails from the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) asking hospitals to submit their COVID-19 positive inpatient admissions for the period January 1, 2020 through June 10, 2020. This information will be used to determine a second round of high impact funding from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund created by the CARES Act (“Relief Fund”).
Submitting the requested data is a prerequisite to payment but is not a guarantee of eligibility. To determine eligibility for funding under this $10 billion distribution, hospitals must submit their information by June 15, 2020 at 9:00 PM Eastern.
Highlights and Key Takeaways
- HHS emails about this new high impact data collection and reporting started going out this week.
- Hospitals MUST report updated admissions from January 1, 2020 through June 10, 2020 by the June 15, 2020 deadline to be considered for a future high impact payment.
- Reporting is through a portal established by TeleTracking (an HHS vendor) using the same login information used to access the TeleTacking portal previously.
- HHS has not specified what the eligibility criteria or what allocation methodology will be used for this second round of high impact payments.
- HHS published several new FAQs on June 8, 2020 about the new high impact payments and the Relief Fund.
- One of the new FAQs states that providers do not need to be able to prove, at the time of accepting payments, that prior and/or future lost revenues and expenses meet or exceed the funding received.
Prior Round of High Impact Payments
The updated data hospitals are instructed to report now will be used to determine a second round of high impact funding. HHS distributed a prior round of high impact payments on May 7, 2020. Eligibility for the first round of high impact payments was based on admission and capacity data reported by hospitals through the TeleTracking portal in April.
In this prior round, HHS paid $12 billion from the Relief Fund to 395 qualifying hospitals. To qualify for a high impact payment from that initial round, a hospital must have had 100 or more positive COVID-19 inpatient admissions through April 10, 2020.
HHS allocated those high impact payments using a fixed amount per COVID-19 inpatient admission ($76,975) with an additional distribution based on each hospital’s portion of Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital payments and Medicare Uncompensated Care Payments.
Specific Reporting Information
HHS is still using the TeleTracking portal to collect relevant data from hospitals. For this round, however, HHS appears to only be asking hospitals to upload their COVID-19 positive inpatient admissions between January 1, 2020 and June 10, 2020. HHS is apparently not requesting updated capacity information (i.e., the number of ICU beds).
Hospital administrators should have received an email about the TeleTracking portal and new data submission requirement from HHS or TeleTracking on June 8 or 9, 2020. Hospitals should be able to access the portal using the same login information used to report admission and capacity data in April.
Providers with questions about the registration process or other technical concerns are instructed to contact TeleTracking Technical Support at 877-570-6903.
New Related Frequently Asked Questions
HHS also published 16 new or modified FAQs about the high impact payments on June 8, 2020. These FAQs address the process generally and specific questions about how and what data needs to be reported. Some highlights and comments from the FAQs:
- HHS’s allocation methodology for this current round of high impact payments will be determined “after fully analyzing the collective data submitted by hospitals.” It is possible that HHS will use a similar COVID-19 inpatient admission threshold and per admission payment methodology for these payments but there is no guarantee and the actual amount of payments will almost certainly be different from the first round of high impact payments.
- Funding from the prior round will be taken into account in making payments under this round but this does not mean the hospitals that previously received a high impact payment are excluded from receiving an additional payment.
- HHS states that a multi-campus hospital should report separately by campus; however that might be difficult when, for example, one NPI is used for more than one campus.
- Inpatient admissions for this reporting must have a “confirmed” or “positive” COVID-19 diagnosis.
Providers should carefully review the FAQs and TeleTracking guidance/instructions relative to what constitutes a COVID‑19 positive case. These sources use different terminology (for example, confirmed vs. presumptive diagnosis) and the definitions should be carefully reviewed prior to submitting the requested data. Providers with multiple locations and/or TINs should also carefully review the guidance relative to how the facility or campus-based reporting applies to their specific corporate, operational and Medicare-enrolled structure.
New Repayment Frequently Asked Question
Although not specific to the high impact payments, HHS published another important FAQ on June 8, 2020 confirming that hospitals do not generally have a requirement to repay Relief Funds during the COVID-19 pandemic:
In order to accept a payment, must the provider have already incurred eligible expenses and losses higher than the Provider Relief Fund payment received?
No. Providers do not need to be able to prove, at the time they accept a Provider Relief Fund payment, that prior and/or future lost revenues and increased expenses attributable to COVID-19 (excluding those covered by other sources of reimbursement) meet or exceed their Provider Relief Fund payment. Instead, HHS expects that providers will only use Provider Relief Fund payments for permissible purposes and if, at the conclusion of the pandemic, providers have leftover Provider Relief Fund money that they cannot expend on permissible expenses or losses, then they will return this money to HHS. HHS will provide directions in the future about how to return unused funds. HHS reserves the right to audit Provider Relief Fund recipients in the future and collect any Relief Fund amounts that were used inappropriately.
This FAQ would appear to support the position that hospitals would rarely be required to reject or repay Relief Funds during the current public health emergency absent extraordinary circumstances such as amounts received for a closed facility or if there is an obvious error in the calculation (e.g., received 20% of net patient revenue instead of 2%).
If you have questions or would like additional information about this topic, please contact:
- David Snow at (303) 801-3536 or dsnow@wp.hallrender.com;
- Lori Wink at (414) 721-0456 or lwink@wp.hallrender.com;
- Joseph Krause at (414) 721-0906 or jkrause@wp.hallrender.com;
- Elizabeth Elias at (317) 977-1468 or eelias@wp.hallrender.com;
- Benjamin Fee at (720) 282-2030 or bfee@wp.hallrender.com; or
- Your regular Hall Render attorney.
Hall Render’s attorneys and professionals continue to maintain the most up-to-date information and resources, which are available at our COVID-19 Resource page, through our 24/7 COVID‑19 Hotline at (317) 429-3900 or by contacting your regular Hall Render attorney.
Hall Render blog posts and articles are intended for informational purposes only. For ethical reasons, Hall Render attorneys cannot—outside of an attorney-client relationship—answer specific questions that would be legal advice.
