AAHomecare has joined 17 other major healthcare provider organizations seeking to fix a taxation penalty embedded in the CARES Act. Without congressional action, many providers will lose more than a fifth of the grant funds approved by Congress to help healthcare providers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The coalition is asking Congress to ensure that 1) Provider Relief Funds and similar funding provided in response to COVID-19 are not taxable; and 2) that entities receiving these funds maintain tax deductions attributable to these funds.
In the letter, the group asserts, “It is critical that the actions taken to support front-line caregivers and hospitals are not diluted by technical issues around the taxability of support funds. The current grant structure creates an inefficient process that provides grants, and then takes back 21 percent or more of the same grants for many of the organizations that need the assistance the most.”
“HME suppliers nationwide are faced with daunting new challenges in serving their patients and communities in this pandemic,” notes AAHomecare president and CEO Tom Ryan. “Congress has provided welcome relief to help offset revenue losses and higher costs that the entire healthcare continuum is currently experiencing; even so, many providers are still facing severe financial impacts as a result of this crisis. Clawing back one fifth of the CARES Act relief will only magnify these pressures for the HME community and other healthcare providers.”
You can find the coalition's letter here.