Urge Senators to Include Provider Relief in COVID-19 Bill

The Senate is about to vote on its COVID-19 relief package. Unfortunately, the Senate bill shares two large gaps with the House-passed bill: no provider relief fund, and no relief for affordable senior housing.

ACT NOW by contacting your U.S. Senators.

We need the Senate to pass a more comprehensive COVID-19 relief bill. Adding these key provisions to the Senate version of the COVID-19 relief bill will provide funding for provider relief and residents of affordable senior housing communities.

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Subject:

Support aging services through expanded COVID-19 relief

Dear Senator,

As a constituent who is concerned for older adults and aging services in my community, I am requesting your support to help aging services providers throughout the country during this crisis. For older adults and those who serve them, this pandemic is not over.

Please do your part and ensure these key pieces of relief are in the Senate version of the COVID-19 relief package that is currently being debated:

Affordable Housing Relief: Address the needs of older adults in HUD-assisted senior housing with $1.2B in COVID-19 relief for Service Coordinators ($300M), wireless internet ($50M) in their apartments, and funds for cleaning, PPE, services, and staffing caused by the pandemic ($845M).

Provider Relief Fund: (PRF) Add an additional $120B to address the current needs of all health care providers and of that amount $40-50B should be designated specifically for aging services providers to continue to meet pandemic related costs and lost revenues and to sustain themselves into the future. Providers should be able utilize the PRF received for up to 6 months after the end of the public health emergency to provide adequate time to phase back into pre-pandemic service levels.

These key resources are needed and I ask you to work to include them in the next COVID-19 relief package. Please work on behalf of the constituents in your community to act for older adults and provide the resources needed to protect our community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thank you.

Regards, Your Name

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As a constituent who is concerned for older adults and those who serve them, I ask that you please co-sponsor the Home Health Emergency Access to Telehealth (HEAT) Act (S.4854/H.R. 8677) and push for its inclusion in any future COVID-relief or other health care package.

Under current law, Medicare cannot reimburse home health providers for virtual care and, as a result, our home health members have been put in the untenable position of forfeiting adequate reimbursement to better protect their staff and patients. The HEAT Act (S.4854/H.R. 8677) would provide home health providers with the ability to receive reimbursement for providing telehealth visits with appropriate protections for patients and families.

Home health providers are a critical component of the aging services infrastructure and they need the flexibility provided by this legislation to ensure that they can safely serve their patients without forfeiting adequate reimbursement. Please act to protect older adults and those who serve them by co-sponsoring the HEAT Act (S.4854/H.R. 8677).