Senators urge Biden Administration to release funds to health care providers

WASHINGTON (WTVQ) — U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, joined Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), Richard Burr (R-NC), Richard Shelby (R-AL), and Mike Crapo (Idaho) in sending a letter Friday to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra urging the agency to quickly distribute funds from the more than $51 billion in unspent Provider Relief Fund (PRF) aid to hospitals and health care providers amid a surge in the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Biden Administration has been in office for more than seven months. Americans are still dying from COVID-19. In some parts of our country, health systems are stretched to the breaking point. In fact, during my travels across Kentucky during the current state work period, I continue to hear from hospital officials urging the federal government to release these funds,” said McConnell. “Yet Secretary Becerra’s HHS has failed to distribute a single dime from the Provider Relief Fund that Congress created to help Americans receive care. What is going on? Why is the Secretary hoarding this money that Congress intended for health providers? We need answers right now.”

The senators wrote, “The nation is currently experiencing the ‘fourth wave’ of COVID-19 infections, with hospitals and health care providers around the country stretched to breaking points not seen since the earliest days of the pandemic. Yet, during the first seven months of this Administration, the Department has refused to issue any PRF distributions.  Our question to you is simple: Why?”

According to the letter, nearly 30% of the $186.5 billion Congress has appropriated in PRF funding has not been distributed, despite the financial strain hospitals and providers are facing due to increased expenses, delayed elective procedures, lost revenues and the costs associated with vaccinating Americans.

“It has been eleven months since the last PRF distribution was announced. We believe it is imperative for the Administration to continue to fight the pandemic with all available means, including by swiftly disbursing PRF funds to providers buckling under the weight of surging COVID-19 cases. … Our message is simple: The Department must distribute needed PRF funds without further delay,” the senators wrote.