The Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act authorized the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to provide $225 million to RHCs for COVID-19 testing and related expenses. Beginning May 20, 2020, HRSA issued funding as one-time payments to RHC organizations of $49,461.42.
The terms and conditions for this program specify that, “The Recipient shall submit reports as the Secretary determines are needed to ensure compliance with conditions that are imposed on this Payment, and such reports shall be in such form, with such content, as specified by the Secretary in future program instructions directed to all Recipients.”
To monitor and assess the program, HRSA has established a set of proposed measures that funded RHCs report back to HRSA at the Tax Identification Number (TIN) level. This brief set of proposed measures includes basic information on the RHC organization, the number of and location of testing sites (active and inactive), information on the use of funds, the total number tests conducted, and the number of COVID-19 positive tests.
HRSA proposes to use this information to evaluate the effectiveness of the program at an aggregate level. As proposed, funded organizations must report the number of tests conducted and the number of positive tests on a monthly basis for the duration of the reporting period retroactively to May 2020. No personally identifiable, patient-level information is being requested.
HRSA will be in contact with RHCs in the coming weeks with more information on the RHC COVID-19 Testing Reporting (RHC CTR) website, upcoming webinar, and other additional information. Please forward the email to the best contact for your RHCs COVID-19 Testing Program and cc: RHCCOVID-19Testing@hrsa.gov if you are the incorrect recipient. HRSA has funded the National Association of Rural Health Clinics to provide technical assistance to RHCs on the RHC COVID-19 Testing Program.
If you have additional questions you may email RHCcovidreporting@narhc.org.
HRSA Rural Health Clinic COVID-19 Testing Program Team
RHCCOVID-19Testing@hrsa.gov
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