May 22, 2020 Washington DC – From Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, the association of nonprofit providers of aging services, including nursing homes, assisted living, home health care, senior living communities and more, regarding HHS’s announcement of targeted payments to nursing homes.

“After months of pleas for funding support for badly needed COVID-19 costs, LeadingAge is pleased to see that HHS announced distribution of nearly $4.9 billion of Provider Relief Funds to nursing homes this morning.

Every federally certified nursing home in the country received funding this morning, including 333 that serve only Medicaid beneficiaries.

This funding is especially welcome as our nonprofit nursing home members across the country continue to face unanticipated rising costs to cover personal protective equipment (PPE), staffing, COVID-19 testing, all while they struggle with lost and decreased revenue.

At a recent press event, Presbyterian Senior Living President and CEO Jim Bernardo said that in the month of April alone that his organization spent an additional $500,000 on PPE over and above what they typically have spent each of the past two years.

These funds are a start in covering nursing homes’ extraordinary expenses related to this public health crisis, but will only go so far in addressing providers’ growing financial needs as this pandemic continues”

We represent more than 5,000 aging-focused organizations that touch millions of lives every day. Alongside our members and 38 state partners, we address critical issues by blending applied research, advocacy, education, and community-building. We bring together the most inventive minds in our field to support older adults as they age wherever they call home. We make America a better place to grow old. For more information: www.leadingage.org