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The AHA today asked the Department of Health and Human Services to distribute substantial additional emergency funds to hospitals and health systems in an expedited manner and using a phased approach.

“We urge HHS to distribute additional funds to all hospitals, as well as to ‘hot spot’ hospitals and hospitals serving high numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients,” AHA said. “At the same time, it should work to create a process by which to then reimburse eligible hospitals and health systems for health care-related expenses or lost revenues attributable to COVID-19 through a direct application process.”

Specifically, AHA urged HHS to:

• Distribute $10 billion in additional funds to “hot spot” hospitals.
• Distribute $10 billion to hospitals serving high numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients.
• Distribute $30 billion in additional funds to all hospitals, including rural and urban short-term acute-care, long-term care and critical access hospitals, as well as inpatient rehabilitation and inpatient psychiatric facilities.
• Use an application process to distribute funds to hospitals and health systems based on their COVID-19-related costs and lost revenue.

View the letter for more details.