Member Article

On April 10, 2020 the Department of Health and Human Services distributed the first $30 billion in healthcare relief funds. On April 22, HHS followed by allocating another $40 billion in relief funds. These funds will provide much needed assistance to healthcare providers absorbing costs and suffering losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regulatory strings attached to these funds, however, create a new set of compliance concerns for healthcare providers of all sizes – from multi-hospital systems to single physician practices. Understanding the terms and conditions attached to these funds and planning for compliance with them are essential to avoiding enforcement headaches at the hands of the government or future whistleblowers.

This webinar will provide fundamental information about:

• Allocation of CARES Act relief funds
• Terms and conditions attached to the relief funds
• Enforcement risks associated with lack of compliance with terms and conditions
• Compliance pointers to head off future enforcement issues

Webinar Recording

Key Takeaways

• Robust, and often politicized, enforcement activities inevitably follow massive government payments during times of crisis.
• Keep up to date with the latest information from HHS as terms and conditions, required attestations, and HHS guidance are changing on a daily basis.
• Specific funding for enforcement authorities and the establishment of new oversight organizations demonstrate the government’s intention to investigate healthcare providers’ use of CARES Act funds.
• Careful accounting for expenses and lost revenues related to the coronavirus pandemic is essential to satisfying enforcement authorities that will audit use of CARES Act funds.
• Attention to compliance now, through robust compliance programs, approval processes and accounting practices, may head off expensive and disruptive investigations in the future.                                                                                        

                                                                                

 

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