Federal Advocacy Going Forward: Let’s Fix the Problem

June 20, 2020

The National Council estimates that of the $175B appropriated to the Healthcare Provider Relief Fund to date, approximately $62B remains unallocated.  And behavioral health providers have received a tiny fraction of these funds, to date.  Making matters worse, those providers that received a direct deposit of funds from the HHS ‘General Distribution’ traunch of funds based on their Medicare claims volume in 2018 are not eligible for the new set aside of funds ($15B) announced last week for Medicaid and CHIP providers, safety net hospitals, etc.   Many of the providers who received Medicare-related funds did not attest / attest properly to their receipt of these funds due to significant confusion stemming from changes in directions from HHS, and this has jeopardized their eligibility for future distribution of Medicare claims-related funds.  

The NYS Council shared the information from HHS with our members re: attestation for receipt of Medicare funds on several occasions at the point when the funds were being deposited in member agency accounts, and more recently we provided instructions to all members on how to ensure you attested properly.

Attached is the sign on letter from the National Council for Behavioral Health and 25 partner organizations requesting support from HHS for an additional distribution of funds through the Health Care Provider Distribution portal to allow behavioral health providers to submit their complete financial information in order to receive at least 2% of 2018 net patient revenue.

The NYS Council will continue to prioritize our work with our partners at the National Council to compel HHS to re-open the General Distribution funds attestation and distribution process while simultaneously arguing for distribution of a portion of the remaining $62B specifically for mental health and substance use disorder/addiction providers.