Important HRSA Update

Over the last couple of months, the funds Congress has provided for COVID response have begun to dwindle. On March 3, $22.5 billion in emergency funding was requested to avoid severe disruption to the COVID response. Last week, Congress passed a government spending bill of $1.5 trillion after stripping out $15.6 billion requests for COVID funds. On March 22, HRSA Uninsured Program will stop accepting new claims for testing and treatment and on April 5, will stop accepting vaccination claims. Some consequences of lack of funding include no additional purchases of monoclonal antibodies sent to states, fewer tests made in America, fewer treatments for the immune-compromised, and the risk of running short on vaccines. Additionally, failing to provide funding for the COVID response now will leave us unequipped to deal with a future surge. While Congress may act to avoid this issue, we must assume the funds program will be stopped, and be prepared.

The following actions will be necessary based on the lack of critical funding:

1. Inability to secure sufficient booster doses and variant-specific vaccines, if needed
2. Providers are no longer able to submit claims for testing, treating, and vaccinating the uninsured
3. Ending the purchase of monoclonal antibody treatments, scaling back state/territory allocations
4. Halting critical testing, vaccine, treatment efforts
5. Scaling back planned purchases of preventative treatments for immunocompromised
6. Reducing the ability to rapidly identify and assess emerging variants
7. Damage to global vaccination and COVID-19 treatment efforts

The following actions are recommended in order to prepare:

•  Take inventory of HRSA claims to date; not submitted, submitted/not paid, in progress on HRSA portal
• Complete insurance discovery process and generate a roster
• Once roster is received, submit immediately to HRSA, watch for HRSA Temp ID - current average timing for HRSA to provide Temp ID 5-7 business days, but subject to change

Once you've got HRSA Temp ID downloaded:

• Integrated clients: provide HRSA Temp ID to post back into system
• Non-integrated clients: update Temp ID in billing system asap

Timing is crucial! Current deadline to submit claims for payment by 3/22.

Let us help you prepare. Receive your COVID funds while you still can.

Contact us today by emailing [email protected]

Thank you,

Vanguard Healthcare Staffing

Provided by: Politico