Provider-Relief Grant-Spending Reports Due in February 2021

Healthcare providers will be required to account for how they spent COVID-19 relief grants by February 2021, HHS has quietly announced.

When lawmakers established the $175 billion Provider Relief Fund, one of the stipulations was that healthcare providers receiving large grants would have to submit quarterly reports to HHS and to an oversight commission on their spending, starting on July 10, 2020. But HHS delayed that reporting deadline and said providers wouldn't have to submit quarterly reports.

Healthcare providers that received more than $10,000 from the Provider Relief Fund will have to account for all the grant funds they spent in 2020 by February 15, 2021, according to a new HHS notice document.

The $10,000 reporting threshold is a notable change from the statutory requirement in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which required detailed reporting disclosures from any entity that had received more than $150,000 in total funds from any COVID-19 relief legislation.

The reporting system is set to open on October 1. The Health Resources and Services Administration will hold question and answer sessions via webinar before the submission deadline.

If healthcare providers don't spend all the grant funds by the end of 2020, they will be required to submit a final report on the remaining funds by July 31, 2021.

Legal experts have said that a failure to comply with the terms and conditions attached to the grants, which include reporting requirements, could result in potential False Claims Act liability.

 (Source: RACHEL COHRS /Modern HealthCare 7/22/2020)