$30 billion of the CARES Act relief fund is expected to be distributed immediately. Eligible providers should begin to receive electronic direct deposits as early as today. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has posted additional information on eligibility and distribution.
Who is eligible for initial $30 billion:
- All facilities and providers that received Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) reimbursements in 2019 are eligible for this initial rapid distribution.
- Payments to practices that are part of larger medical groups will be sent to the group's central billing office.
How are payment distributions determined:
- Providers will be distributed a portion of the initial $30 billion based on their share of total Medicare FFS reimbursements in 2019. Total FFS payments were approximately $484 billion in 2019.
- A provider can estimate their payment by dividing their 2019 Medicare FFS (not including Medicare Advantage) payments they received by $484,000,000,000, and multiply that ratio by $30,000,000,000. Providers can obtain their 2019 Medicare FFS billings from their organization's revenue management system.
- As an example: A community hospital billed Medicare FFS $121 million in 2019. To determine how much they would receive, use this equation: $121,000,000/$484,000,000,000 x $30,000,000,000 = $7,500,000.
The full details are available here.