Hospices Contend with COVID Relief Funding Questions

Under the CARES Act enacted in March, many hospice providers nationwide received federal relief funding to provide monetary support as they reeled from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. As the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) distributed millions of often unsolicited dollars from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund, legal rules and restrictions surrounding the ways hospices could use federal pandemic funds remained unclear, leaving many organizations questioning whether or not they should accept the federal dollars.

Automatic payments began rolling in, and uncertainty grew over what to do with the unsolicited funds as