Provider Relief Funds (PRF)  in excess of $10,000 received as part of the CARES Act, must be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services web portal opening July 1, 2021. Expenses must be necessary and reasonable to support patient care efforts to prepare for, prevent, or respond to coronavirus. 

Providers are encouraged to pre-register now. 

Federal guidance for reporting how the money was and is being spent was published June 11, 2021 along with information on auditing. 

Your deadline for using the funds and your deadline for reporting the funds both depend upon when you received them, not on the cumulative amount received, so it is important to look carefully at these dates. 

Providers who received PRF funds are encouraged to take the estimated 20 minutes to register on the portal and see how you will be asked to enter the information about the dates and the expenses for which you used the funds. 

Allowable expenses are those that were not already eligible for coverage, such as through SBA loans or Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) finds, and correspond to one of two main categories. The first is General and Administrative Costs, such as: direct employee expenses, rent or mortgage, utilities, leasing of equipment or software, insurance, cleaning, and more. The second is Healthcare Related Expenses including: PPE and cleaning agents, infection control and ventilation equipment, diagnostic lab equipment, hardware and software technology and internet to promote telehealth and remote working, facility modifications including temporary retrofits to improve infection control, and more.

Vaccine administration sites and rural health providers are not included in this guidance.