AAHomecare Presses for Equitable Medicaid Relief

Some providers were denied the recently announced Medicaid/CHIP relief despite declining payments from the first tranche of relief. Association working with administration, lawmakers for a fix.

• By David Kopf
• Jun 18, 2020

After HHS announced last week that it had earmarked an additional $15 billion from the CARES Act's Provider Relief Fund to eligible Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) providers, the American Association for Homecare is working to ensure all applicable HME providers get the aid after some reported they had been denied the aid.

To qualify for the funding, healthcare providers must have directly billed their state Medicaid/CHIP programs or Medicaid managed care plans for healthcare-related services between Jan. 1, 2018 and May 31, 2020. Also, they must not have received payments from the $50 billion Provider Relief Fund General Distribution.

However, AAHomecare reported that HHS had denied any Medicaid relief to some providers because they received small Medicare relief payments. Also, other HME businesses that declined to accept the first tranche of aid were ineligible for any Medicaid-based relief.

“We believe that this was an unintended consequence of rolling out the relief program so quickly,” AAHomecare noted in a statement. “There was also a lack of clarity about suppliers’ eligibility and how each tranche of payments related to the others.”

The association reported it has contacted the administration about the issue and said it would work with members of Congress to ensure providers are eligible for the relief that reflects their service to beneficiaries under Medicare and Medicaid.