Hospitals Ask Congress For More Time To Repay CARES Act Medicare Loans
- June 22, 2020
Modern Healthcare (6/19, Bannow, Subscription Publication) reported, “Hospitals are using dramatic language in their effort to convince Congress to allow more time to repay loans meant to sustain them during the pandemic – arguing, for example, that 25% of hospitals’ total payments will vanish once repayment starts.” However, “for many, especially large, well-capitalized companies, the situation isn’t as dire as their trade groups would have lawmakers believe.” As “part of the deal for hospitals that got a chunk of the $100 billion in accelerated and advance Medicare payments...CMS would start recouping the money after 120 days,” and “recoupment is coming in the form of garnishing 100% of hospitals’ fee-for-service Medicare claims going forward until the loans are repaid,” but “hospitals say that’s too harsh.”