Carle Foundation Hospital has received nearly $18.8 million this month in grant money under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security or CARES Act, according to COVID Stimulus Watch.
Carle Foundation Hospital will use the money to offset lost revenue and higher costs of care due to coronavirus, Jamie Mullin, public relations manager for Carle, said in an email statement.
“These funds have been used by the Carle system for bolstering medical supplies and personal protective equipment, performing testing and care for COVID-19 positive patients, enhancing COVID-19 specific care training, and measures to increase surge capacity as well as to help offset lost revenue,” Mullins said.
She added, “Carle has taken advantage of telemedicine flexibilities provided under the CARES Act to offer the best and safest care possible to our largely rural service area.”
Meanwhile, Christie Clinic received about $2.4 million in grant money.
“These funds were used to help restore lost revenue that resulted from Christie Clinic’s compliance with the stay-at-home executive orders that prevented elective and non-essential medical treatment,” Anni McClellan, chief financial officer at Christie Clinic said in an email. “Though the funding we received represents only a fraction of the lost revenues, we are thankful for the fiscal stimulus it provided.”
These grants were awarded through the department’s Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund on June 11, according to COVID Stimulus Watch, which is a service of Good Jobs First, which collects data of financial assistance from federal, state and local government programs. COVID Stimulus Watch, specifically collects and publishes data from CARES Act recipients.
Healthcare providers were awarded either a grant or a loan in order to assist in COVID-19 responses. The grants do not have to be repaid; however, the loans do.
In total, the federal Health and Human Services Department awarded $175 billion in grants to hospitals and healthcare providers across the country
Two OSF hospitals, located in Peoria and Evergreen Park, received grants of nearly $6.6 million on June 11 and nearly $18.3 million on May 8.
Shelli Dankoff, Media Relations Supervisor for OSF, said the advances from the government will help manage challenges that occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As people sheltered at home for several months, elective procedures were shut down creating significant revenue losses for OSF and other health systems,” Dankoff said.
She said the monetary advances are available to ensure adequate cash flow for operations and have to be repaid beginning in August.
The two grants were also awarded by the Health and Human Services Department. The Peoria location was awarded the grant through the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund and the Evergreen location was awarded the grant through the Provider Relief Fund COVID-19 High-Impact Payments.
Ten other Illinois OSF hospitals were given loans on May 8 totaling to about $16.1 million. Loans ranged from $500,000 to $106 million. However, it is unclear which locations each loan went to.
The loans were given from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Medicare Accelerated and Advanced Payment Program and will have to be repaid.
Champaign Urbana Nursing and Rehab also received a loan of $599,901 from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payment Program.