News & Media
Coronavirus April 9 Update: Senate Blocks SBA Bill, Relief Funding Reaches Frontlines and Ventilator Rationing Triggers Ethics Concerns
Funding from Congress begins to reach the frontlines
The Health and Human Services Department announced Wednesday it would direct $1.3 billion to community health centers, the latest round of funding for health facilities hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The funding comes from the sprawling coronavirus relief bill signed by President Donald Trump on March 27 (PL 116-136).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday announced a round of $186 million in funding for hot zones.
Congress appropriated $100 million to community health centers in an earlier pandemic response bill signed into law in early March (PL 116-123), and $560 million to states through the CDC as part of that earlier law. Community health centers treated about 28.4 million people last year, according to Health Resources and Services Administration Director Martin Kramer.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also began distributing $30 billion in funds to hospitals this week, but many vulnerable safety-net providers could be at a disadvantage, Lauren Clason reports. The formula uses Medicare's advance payment program, and not Medicaid, which could lessen the amount available to hospitals in underserved areas that were struggling to stay afloat before the pandemic hit.
As the uninsured rate climbs with the unemployment rate, hospitals' uncompensated care could consume much of the approximately $100 billion allocated to hospitals under the most recent rescue package, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.
As Congress shapes its next rescue bill, Democrats have called for another $100 billion in funding for hospitals.
Senate blocks small-business aid bill
A Republican attempt to add $251 billion to a popular coronavirus response fund for forgivable small-business loans by unanimous consent was blocked Thursday, as Sen. Chris Van Hollen objected.
Sen. Benjamin L Cardin, the ranking member of the Senate Small Business Committee, said the bill wouldn't "address the immediate need of small businesses."
He noted that the Small Business Administration had committed 30 percent of the existing funds but hadn't yet released them. "The UC leaves out where small businesses need help today. "
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in comments on the floor, noted the new unemployment report released Thursday.
"This morning we learned that 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment in just the last week," McConnell, R-Ky., said. "We need more funding and we need it fast."
"The country cannot afford unnecessary wrangling or political maneuvering, " he said. "This does not have to be nor should it be contentious."
"Do not block emergency aid you do not even oppose just because you want something more," he said to Democrats.
Van Hollen, D-Md., proposed an amendment that was also rejected.
"But for goodness sake, let's take the opportunity to make some bipartisan fixes to allow this program to work better for the very people it's designed to help -- small businesses, nonprofits. That's what they are asking us to do," Van Hollen said.
The $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program is the first part of the $2.3 trillion coronavirus economic rescue package to get up and running. Less than a week later after its enactment, lawmakers say it’s running out of money.
The White house requested the additional $251 billion for the fund Tuesday, and McConnell tried to oblige by advancing a measure through Thursday’s pro forma session.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Wednesday that the stand-alone $251 billion measure would fail in her chamber, adding that the Small Business Administration had enough money to wait a few days while Congress negotiated an interim spending package.
Democrats want to add an additional $100 billion for hospitals and $150 billion for states to the stopgap measure, and set aside $60 billion of the SBA’s additional $251 billion for lending to underserved rural and minority-owned small businesses.
Read the full story on RollCall.com.
Plans to ration ventilators trigger ethics concerns
The HHS Office for Civil Rights is investigating multiple states for policies that allegedly discriminate against patients with disabilities in the event of a ventilator shortage, Director Roger Severino told reporters Wednesday.
Severino announced the department had resolved the first of those investigations with Alabama, which agreed to revoke a 2010 policy allowing clinicians to deny ventilators to those with "profound mental retardation" and "moderate to severe dementia," in addition to exclusionary language on age. Alabama agreed with the decision in a statement.
"All people deserve compassion and equal respect," Alabama State Health Officer Scott Harris said, "and with this in mind, the allocation of care cannot discriminate based on race, color, national origin, disability, age, sex, exercise of conscience or religion."
OCR Director Roger Severino declined to say when state officials had last reviewed and approved the policy prior to removing it. He instead commended officials for acting within days of being contacted. Acceptable policies assess the worth of the medical treatment, not the individual person, he said.
"The underlying point is this," he said. "Every state should be aware that there are lines that shouldn't be crossed when they're coming up with crisis standards of care."
He pointed to New York's policy as a possible model for other states as they scramble to prepare for a potential ventilator shortage, although he cautioned that the protocol was not perfect and that OCR does not formally endorse the policy.
An analysis from the Center for Public Integrity found that 25 states have crisis policies that could adversely affect those with disabilities, including in New York, where hospitals are most likely to run out of ventilators first. New York's policy allows removing ventilators from those who use the machines routinely, which advocates say could negatively affect some patients with disabilities.
Battle rages over abortion rights during COVID-19 health emergency
Conflict over whether or not abortions should continue during the COVID-19 health emergency continues across conservative states.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Texas can enforce its abortion ban during the COVID-19 health emergency, hours after abortion rights lawyers said they would appeal to the Supreme Court if there was no ruling.
On Wednesday, Planned Parenthood filed for a limited temporary restraining order with the District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division. If granted, it would allow the organization to provide medication abortions until April 13th, when a preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled.
Similar battles are playing out in other states -- on Monday, a district court judge ruled that providers in Oklahoma can continue to provide abortions during the health emergency.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood have filed suit in four states -- Iowa, Ohio, Oklahoma and Alabama -- over decisions to declare abortion access a non-essential service during the COVID-19 emergency.