Omnibus Funding Package with COVID-19 Relief, Health Care Extenders, and Surprise Billing Ban

Manatt Health 

After a dynamic few weeks of negotiations, President Trump signed into law on December 27, 2020 a nearly 6,000-page legislative package (The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021) that includes government appropriations through September 30, 2021; COVID-19 relief funding and targeted policy changes, a subset of which impact health programs; extensions of expiring health programs; a ban on surprise billing; and an amalgam of odds-and-ends health policy provisions.

This analysis includes a summary of the following health care provisions:

• COVID-19 relief provisions, including federal and state government funding for vaccines and testing; an extension of the deadline by which state, local, and tribal governments must incur Coronavirus Relief Fund expenses; and additional funding and Provider Relief Fund policy changes.
• Medicaid health care extenders, which in many cases ensure the continuation of otherwise-expiring health care programs for multiple years.
• Delay in Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) allotment reductions and supplemental payment reporting requirements and other Medicaid supplemental payment provisions that could impact the amount of supplemental payments individual providers receive.
• Other Medicaid provisions, including codifying in statute non-emergency medical transportation requirements.

For more information, see the SHVS webinar, The COVID-19 Relief Package and the “No Surprises Act”: Implications for States, and our expert perspective, The No Surprises Act: Implications for States. 

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