138 Physician Groups Ask HHS to Cover COVID-19 Losses

American’s physicians want the government to provide each physician, nurse practitioner and physician assistants enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid with one month of pay to account for financial losses and non-reimbursable expenses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The funds, states an April 7, 2020 letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Alex Azar, are to support physician practices, “in light of lost revenue, such as for paying salaries, benefits, and overhead and making necessary investments to continue providing care such as telehealth.”

The letter signed by 138 medical societies and associations, cited the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and Congress’s intent to provide relief to physician practices.

“We are writing to request immediate financial assistance for physicians across the country who are taking heroic action to treat patients with the novel coronavirus, providing ongoing care for patients with chronic conditions and urgent needs, and incurring significant financial losses due to postponing non-essential procedures and visits.”

They reminded Azar, that the statute requires HHS to interpret eligibility for the CARES funding broadly to include “all physicians who are experiencing revenue losses and non-reimbursable expenses” as a result of the pandemic.

The docs say they’ve heard of physicians and other caregivers staying in hotels and renting apartments, so they don’t bring the virus home to their families. Ambulatory surgical center surgeons are not seeing patients for non-essential services to preserve medical supplies for their brothers and sisters treating COVID-19 patients.

They also expressed concern that small practices may face financial ruin as they have less ready access to capital and are already operating on razor thin margins.

Finally, the docs say they have heard from many large physician practices and faculty practice plans that have over 500 employees and will not qualify for the small business assistance in the CARES Act. “They are faced with the untenable position of laying off staff and physicians due to lower financial revenues while preparing for, and in some areas of the country, responding to a surge in patients with COVID-19.”

The organizations say HHS should use an individual’s average monthly payment amount from October-December 2019, which has been provided to the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs), as the basis for determining pre-pandemic monthly revenue. Because Medicare patients account for 35% of all patients, the groups urge HHS to use three times the October-December 2019 average as the basis for issuing a payment.

The letter did not estimate the total cost of the extra payment.

To see names of all the medical groups that signed the letter and read further details, click here.