Action needed:
Call or email your U.S. representative and senator and urge them to support bipartisan legislation extending the deadline to spend Provider Relief Fund (PRF) payments.
Find your representative’s contact information via this online directory.
Find your senator’s contact information via this online directory.
Timing:
Call or email your representative and senator by October 1.
Background:
The Department of Health & Human Services required providers that received PRF payments prior to June 30, 2020, to spend the funds by June 30, 2021.
Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Kevin Kramer (R-ND) and Reps. Cynthia Axne (D-IA) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) introduced the Provider Relief Fund Deadline Extension Act (S. 2493/H.R. 4735), which would allow providers that received COVID-19 PRF payments prior to June 30, 2020, to use their payments through December 31, 2021, or the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, whichever is later.
Urge your representative and senator to support the bipartisan Provider Relief Fund Deadline Extension Act. With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations on the rise again, providers must be allowed additional time to use their unspent funds so that hospitals can continue the fight against COVID-19 and protect their communities during the ongoing pandemic. This important legislation would offer hospitals the financial flexibility that is crucial in the continued pandemic response.
CHA’s support letter to the California congressional delegation may be used as a template for members’ outreach. Please direct your representative/senator to take the following action, as appropriate:
- House Democrats should email: Robert.Krebs@mail.house.gov in Rep. Axne’s office
- House Republicans should email: Kendyl.Willox@mail.house.gov in Rep. Miller-Meeks’s Office
- Senate Democrats should email: Santiago_Gonzalez@Bennet.senate.gov in Sen. Bennet’s Office