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MANCHIN PRESSES FOR IMPROVEMENTS TO MEDICARE ACCELERATED AND ADVANCE PAYMENTS PROGRAM FOR WEST VIRGINIA HOSPITALS
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) pressed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to make improvements to the Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payments program which provides assistance to healthcare providers who struggled with revenue losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senator Manchin is an original cosponsor of the Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payments Improvement Act, a bill which provides Medicare payments in advance to eligible providers experiencing claims or cash flow disruptions.
CMS has allocated approximately $101 billion through the Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payments program. This has given a critical lifeline to healthcare providers who have struggled with revenue losses during the pandemic. For many of these providers, beginning in August, CMS will start to recover the upfront payments that were made in April by recouping 100 percent of the Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) payments that would otherwise be made to the providers to reimburse them for Medicare services.
The Senator said in part, “As you negotiate a legislative package to address the ongoing health and economic impact of the novel coronavirus or “COVID-19” pandemic, we write to urge you to include critical modifications to the Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payments program. This program has provided hospitals, nursing facilities, physician practices and other health care providers across this country with vital financial assistance to help ensure ongoing liquidity during this time when providers’ revenues have steeply declined and COVID-19 response expenses have increased. However, without revisions to the terms and repayment schedule of the program and an option for forgiveness of upfront payments provided by the program, health care providers will face significant financial stress during the months ahead, at a time when we need to ensure continued availability of care and services.”
MANCHIN, CAPITO INTRODUCE TRUST ACT FOR INCLUSION IN COVID-19 EMERGENCY RELIEF PACKAGE
Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), along with 13 bipartisan colleagues, today introduced the Time to Rescue United States’ Trusts (TRUST) Act of 2020, bipartisan and bicameral legislation which would create a process to rescue the endangered federal trust funds and rein in the national debt. The TRUST Act of 2020 is an updated version of the TRUST Act, which Senators Manchin and Romney initially introduced last year.
“Our budgets must be a reflection of our priorities while maintaining fiscal responsibility,” Senator Manchin said. “Generations of irresponsibly cutting taxes combined with spending beyond our means has left the important programs on which we all depend – Medicare, Social Security, highways, and pensions – on the brink of insolvency. The financial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have only compounded the problem. While I recognize that now is not the time to gut federal investments, we cannot continue to ignore this reality. I’m proud to join a bipartisan group of colleagues to re-introduce the TRUST Act to give us a roadmap to getting our fiscal house in order when we get on the other side of this pandemic.”
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