In the evening of December 21, 2020, both Houses of Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, H.R. 133.  The sprawling, 5,593-page legislation includes the most significant health care-related provisions to be passed since the CARES Act.  The President is expected to sign the legislation shortly.  Of note, in the course of appropriating billions of additional dollars to combat COVID-19, division H, title II of the legislation alters certain requirements of the Provider Relief Fund (“PRF”) affecting health care providers and suppliers.

First, the legislation provides that if the recipient of PRF funds is a subsidiary of a parent organization, that parent organization may allocate all or any portion of such payment among any of its subsidiaries that are eligible for PRF funds. This includes any payments made by the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) under so-called “Targeted Distributions,” which represents a change from the position taken in guidance issued by HHS.  The legislation expressly provides that the responsibility for reporting the reallocated payments remains with the original recipient of the funds.

Second, the legislation gives recipients of PRF funds greater flexibility in how they calculate lost revenue by referencing a since-superseded version of guidance issued by HHS in June 2020.

If enacted into law as expected, the above legislative changes could soon have a significant impact because the first reporting deadline for recipients of PRF funds is February 15, 2021. Should you have any questions related to this new legislation and how it may impact your organization, please do not hesitate to reach out to the health care attorneys at Reed Smith.