Last week, health care providers that participated in Medicare during 2019 should have received an automatic deposit to the bank account that the provider uses to receive payments from Medicare. The deposit description would have been “HHSPAYMENT US HHS Stimulus.” These deposits are part of an initial $30B in CARES Act stimulus funds directed at the health care industry in response to the COVID-19 national public emergency. 

As a condition of retaining the deposited funds, within thirty (30) days of receiving the payment, the health care provider must sign an attestation confirming receipt of the funds and agreeing to the terms and conditions set by Department of Health and Human Services. The attestation is to be completed via an e-portal available here. Providers will need to have their federal tax ID number(s), bank account number(s), and payment amount(s) on hand in order to progress through the verification pages of the portal before being able to review the terms and conditions and complete their attestations. The terms and conditions are those posted and available on the HHS.gov website as of Friday, April 10, 2020, which can be downloaded here. 

Not returning the payment within 30 days of receipt will be viewed as acceptance of the Terms and Conditions. Providers that do not wish to retain the funds must therefore contact HHS within 30 days to reject the funds and obtain instructions for how to remit payment back to HHS. This can be also accomplished via the e-portal, linked above. 

If you have any questions about the CARES Provider Relief Fund, please contact any member of the Koley Jessen Health Law Practice.

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