Health Law Monitor

CARES Act Update: CMS to Distribute $30 Billion to Medicare Providers by Week’s End

April 8, 2020

By: Neil C. Brown

Title III of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act contains various provisions intended to support America’s health care system in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the CARES Act includes $100 billion in new funding to reimburse “eligible health care providers” for “health care related expenses or lost revenues that are attributable to coronavirus,” specific details about how to access these funds have generally not been made available.

At the April 7, 2020 COVID-19 Task Force Briefing, CMS Administrator Seema Verma announced that the first $30 billion of the Title III CARES Act funding is likely to be distributed to Medicare providers by the end of this week. 

The funds will be distributed in the form of grants based on a provider’s Medicare revenue. Unfortunately, her remarks did not make clear exactly which Medicare providers will qualify for the new grant money. Verma did state that the grants will have “no strings attached,” that “providers can spend [the funds] in any way [they] see fit,” and that the grants will be made available via direct deposit or through a “simple registration” process.

Finally, Verma indicated that there will be a second round of funding available for other providers including pediatricians, children’s hospitals and nursing homes, who receive much of their funding from other sources. Jackson Kelly will provide more details about the availability of this additional funding – as well as the $30 billion-dollar grants – as more information becomes available.