Providers required to repay Provider Relief Fund payments soon will receive email communications and then certified letters from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration.
The first batch of notices is about to be sent, and HRSA anticipates that it will send out those letters to batches of providers over the next four months. The repayment request notice will include the repayment amount and the reason for owing funds.
An appeals process exists for providers that receive a repayment request notice based on a HRSA finding of noncompliance or the results of an audit/assessment. Providers will be sent a link to a portal to dispute those findings. Providers that believe their payment was miscalculated can use a separate process, however.
Providers are forewarned that HRSA will be running audits in waves over the next two years.
“There will be an intense level of scrutiny on reporting. The financial team is the one that’s going to be hit hardest by this and it’s nice to have institutional knowledge,” Christopher J “CJ” Frisina, an attorney in Alston & Bird’s Healthcare Group who works with healthcare providers and suppliers in responding to inquiries from HHS and its subgroups such as the HHS Office of Inspector General, previously told McKnight’s. “Some organizations will have made mistakes and need to respond and fix their processes. Others may learn they have used funds inappropriately and will need to return them.”
