Author: Punch Robinson

The official e-magazine for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families published an article by Lutheran Services in America’s Sheila Weber about how the intersection of several devastating realities in our society are having a disparate impact on Black people, indigenous populations, and people of color in America, particularly children. Part of the solution to this issue involves shifting our thinking from how to protect children in families that are in crisis to creating societal conditions that equitably protect and strengthen families.

Lutheran Services in America’s Results Innovation Lab is activating our members serving children, youth, and families to stabilize families in their communities so that families remain intact and children do not enter out-of-home care. Furthermore, we are calling for much-needed state and federal investments in primary prevention efforts that strengthen families’ protective capacities and factors.

Read the complete article published by Children’s Bureau Express (CBX).

Congress is currently preparing an economic recovery package based on the “American Jobs Plan” proposed by President Biden to improve America’s physical and social infrastructure and help move the economy forward and out of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Lawmakers are negotiating with the Administration and crafting the legislative language for this bill now.

While details of what will be included in the final bill are subject to change as the process moves forward, we are asking Members of Congress to support the following significant provisions for our network currently being considered:

• $400 billion for home and community-based services (HCBS) for older adults and persons with disabilities.  This unprecedented investment in these services could enable health and human services providers to expand services and eliminate the nationwide waitlist of 850,000 older adults and persons with disabilities so they can receive needed services in their homes and communities. This could also help address the workforce shortage, for example, through increased wages and benefits for direct care workers. Finally, it would allow expansion of the Money Follows the Person program and for older adults transitioning from acute care setting to their homes to receive the services needed to prevent rehospitalization such as transportation, nutrition, and more.
• $213 billion for affordable housing and homelessness services to produce, preserve, and retrofit more than two million affordable and sustainable places to live, address longstanding public housing capital needs, and eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies.
• Inclusion of the provisions of the WORK NOW Act (S. 740): this $50 billion grant program will provide nonprofit health and human services organizations funding to pay wages, salaries and benefits to retain staff, meet the greater demand for services, and hire unemployed workers.

More information can be found in our detailed summary.

Join us by sending a message to lawmakers: please support provisions currently under consideration which would benefit nonprofit health and human services providers. While we will continue to advocate that ALL our crucial priorities for further support for nonprofits be enacted, it’s important for lawmakers to hear our voice now as they prepare the current legislation.

Following the unveiling Tuesday of the broad outline of a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package that would enact many of the “human infrastructure” provisions included in President Biden’s American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, most Senate Democrats reacted positively. More time will be needed, however, to secure the support of all 50 Senate Democrats for a fiscal year 2022 budget resolution, the first step in passing the package via the filibuster-proof reconciliation process.

Conservatives, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), continue to take issue with the cost of the legislation, while progressives have expressed concern that the bill does not spend enough money on key priorities like childcare. While the initial outline for the package does not contain much detail on individual policy provisions or specific dollar amounts for programs that it includes, it does contain language indicating that the President’s proposed expansion of home- and community-based services (HCBS) will be included.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Wednesday he is still confident that the Senate will adopt the budget resolution, as well as pass a separate bipartisan traditional infrastructure bill that will require 60 votes to move through regular order, before the chamber departs for its August recess. House leadership also hopes to pass the budget resolution before August, with work and passage on the substantive legislation itself to come in the fall.

Lutheran Services in America continues to advocate in support of key provisions of the President’s proposals, particularly the $400 billion home and community-based services (HCBS) investment (which is outlined in the Better Care Better Jobs Act, S. 2210/H.R. 4131) and a provision for $213 billion for affordable housing and homelessness services, and is urging the inclusion of the WORK NOW Act legislation (S. 740) to provide nonprofit health and human services organizations funding to pay wages, salaries, and benefits to retain staff and meet services’ demand.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced $25.5 billion in new funding for health care providers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes $17 billion in Provider Relief Fund Phase 4 funding for providers who have experienced changes in operating revenues and expenses, as well as $8.5 billion in American Rescue Plan Rural funding for providers who provide Medicare, Medicaid, or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) services to rural beneficiaries.

PRF Phase 4 payments will be based on providers’ lost revenues and expenditures between July 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021.  ARP rural payments will be made to providers based on the amount of Medicaid, CHIP and/or Medicare services they provide to patients who live in rural areas as defined by the HHS Federal Office of Rural Health Policy.

Providers may apply for both programs via a single application on the Provider Relief Fund Application and Attestation Portal through the final deadline of October 26, 2021.

• Eligibility:  
  • PRF: Providers or suppliers who bill Medicare fee-for-service (Parts A and/or B) or Medicare Advantage, Medicaid (fee-for service or managed care) or CHIP
    • Phase 4 will also include new elements specifically focused on equity, including reimbursing smaller providers for their changes in operating revenues and expenses at a higher rate compared to larger providers, and bonus payments based on the amount of services providers furnish to Medicaid/CHIP and Medicare patient.
  • Rural payments: Providers who serve Medicaid, CHIP, and Medicare patients who live in rural communities are eligible for the ARP Rural payments
    • HRSA will price payments at the generally higher Medicare rates for Medicaid/CHIP patients.
• Required documentation:
  • Applicant TIN and TINs for any subsidiaries included in the applicant TINs IRS tax filing.
  • Internally-generated financial statements that substantiate operating revenues and expenses from patient care in 2019 Q1, Q3, and Q4; 2020 Q3 and Q4; and 2021 Q1.
  • Form 990

More information is available from HRSA.