“The federal government this week began recovering the extra Medicare payments sent to nursing homes and other health care providers during the initial height of the coronavirus crisis last year.”
“The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2020 doled out more than $100 billion in cash to Medicare-certified providers under the Accelerated and Advance Payments (AAP) program, one of several federal initiatives designed to help tide operators over amid spiking costs and other operational issues caused by COVID-19.”
“Unlike the straight relief funds distributed through the CARES Act, the Medicare dollars were always intended to be loans, with repayment starting a year from the date of first receipt.”
“That day came for the first wave of providers on March 30, CMS announced last week. Operators will gradually begin to see lighter Medicare payments over the coming weeks as the government uses current reimbursements to pay off the outstanding debts…”
“The AAP deadline marks another milestone as the federal government shifts its COVID-19 strategy away from crisis management and slowly begins to perform an accounting of where hundreds of billions in emergency aid ended up…” Read the full article here.
Source: CMS Begins Recovering More Than $100B in Accelerated and Advance Medicare Payments — By Alex Spanko, April 2, 2021. Skilled Nursing News.
