Protect the COVID-19 aid the federal government has given to private safety-net hospitals, NASH has asked in a letter to Congress.

The letter refers to changes in how the Department of Health and Human Services wants hospitals to calculate the revenue they lost as a result of COVID-19 – the justification in part for the Provider Relief Fund payments hospitals have received through the CARES Act.  In June, HHS told hospitals how to make that calculation but late last month it changed those directions in ways that could force many private safety-net hospitals and others to return some or even much of the federal aid they received.

In the letter, NASH asks members of Congress to sign a bipartisan letter asking HHS Secretary Alex Azar to restore the June instructions for calculating COVID-19-related lost hospital revenue.

Go here to read NASH’s message to Congress.