Biden administration is giving out billions to rural health-care providers, passed as part of last pandemic relief bill

"The Department of Health and Human Services has begun distributing billions of dollars to rural health care providers to ease the financial pressures brought by the coronavirus pandemic and to help hospitals stay open," Mark Walker reports for The New York Times. "The agency said on Tuesday that it had started doling out $7.5 billion to more than 40,000 health care providers in every state and six U.S. territories through the American Rescue Plan," a relief bill that Democrats passed in March. "The infusion of funds will help offset increased expenses and revenue losses among rural physicians during the pandemic, the agency said."

Many rural hospitals and other medical providers were already struggling before 2019, since they often had to deal with more costs than suburban and urban providers. That's a function of supply chains and an overall older, sicker and poorer populace, Walker reports. The pandemic has worsened those struggles; 21 rural hospitals have closed since the start of 2020. 

"Rural physicians serve a disproportionate number of patients covered by Medicaid, Medicare or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which often have more complex medical needs," Walker reports. "Under the program, every eligible provider that serves at least one Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP beneficiary in a rural part of the country will receive at least $500. Payments will range up to $43 million, with an average of $170,700; the size is based on how many claims a provider submitted for rural patients covered by these programs from January 2019 through September 2020."

Providers can use the money for a wide range of needs, including salaries, recruitment and retention; capital investments; information technology; supplies such as personal protective equipment or ventilators, and more, Walker reports.

"The administration has also allocated billions of dollars through the American Rescue Plan for coronavirus testing for the uninsured, increased reimbursement for Covid vaccine administration, improving access to telehealth services in rural areas, and a grant program for health care providers that serve Medicare patients," Walker reports. "On Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris said that the administration would be investing $1.5 billion to address the shortage of health care workers in underserved tribal, rural and urban communities. The funds — which will provide scholarships and pay off loans for clinicians who commit to jobs in underserved areas — come on the heels of a report from the White House’s Covid Health Equity Task Force that made recommendations on how inequalities in the health care system could be fixed."