CARES Act Provider Relief Payments (Grants) to Pharmacies
The CARES Act included $100 billion to fund payments to health-care providers who are on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 -- including pharmacies.
The payments are not loans and do not need to be repaid.
Billing providers who received Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) reimbursements in 2019 are eligible for this initial distribution of $30 billion, and some APRx pharmacies already report that they have received a payment. The amount of the payment you may receive is based on your per-capita share of total Medicare FFS reimbursements in 2019. (Those with large-scale DME operations or LTC practices should receive fairly large payments.) You should receive a Provider Relief payment if you billed Medicare Part B in 2019 for:
- Covered drugs
- Covered immunizations
- DME
- MTM
- Diabetes Education
The payments are being made via ACH to the Medicare routing number and account number you have on file with HHS. The payments will come via Optum Bank with "HHSPAYMENT" as the payment description.
Attestation is Required After Receiving Payment
Within 30 days of receiving the payment, you must sign an attestation confirming receipt of the funds and agreeing to the terms and conditions of payment. Terms and conditions can be found on hhs.gov/providerrelief. If you choose to reject the funds, you still must complete the attestation. The portal will guide you through the attestation process to either accept or reject the funds. Not returning the payment within 30 days of receipt is viewed as acceptance of the Terms and Conditions.
The complete Terms & Conditions are available in the link below, but the basic ones are:
- You must have billed Medicare in 2019 for covered services;
- You provided care after Jan. 31, 2020, for patients with actual or possible cases of COVID-19;
- You have full Medicare billing privileges and are not excluded from participation in Medicare, Medicaid or any other federal health-care programs;
- You must certify that you will use the payment as reimbursement only for health-care-related expenses or lost revenues that are attributable to coronavirus;
- You must certify that you will not use the payment to reimburse expenses or losses that have been reimbursed from other sources (such as an EIDL or PPP loan); and
- You must submit reports as required by DHHS to ensure compliance with the conditions attached to the payments.