State Announces $800 Million in Additional Funding to Fight COVID-19

BOSTON — The Baker-Polito administration announced a new financial package to support providers through the MassHealth program.A new infusion of $800 million at MassHealth in critical stabilization funding will support healthcare providers impacted by and responding to COVID-19.

Healthcare providers across the Commonwealth have stepped up in unprecedented ways in the past few weeks while experiencing significant impact on their revenue and operations. This funding will support hospitals, nursing facilities, primary-care providers, behavioral-health providers, and long-term services and supports providers, and will be distributed starting this month and through July. This funding is in addition to the $290 million in immediate cash relief and $550 million in accelerated payments to providers announced in March. The Executive Office of Health and Human Services will continue to monitor and evaluate the situation.

These resources include: 

• More than $400 million to hospitals. The majority of this funding will support 28 safety net and high-Medicaid hospitals, to address lost revenue and increased costs for hospitals at the front lines of treating patients with COVID-19. This includes a 20% rate increase for COVID-19 care, as well as a 7.5% across-the-board rate increase for other hospital care.

• More than $80 million for nursing facilities; $50 million will be dedicated funding for all nursing facilities across the state, while facilities and units within nursing facilities that are designated COVID-19 sites of care will receive approximately $30 million in additional funding to support their capacity to care for COVID-19 patients.

• More than $300 million for other healthcare providers that are delivering medical care for COVID-19 or providing services that keep residents safe in their homes and out of the hospital, including more than $50 million for community health centers; around $30 million for personal-care attendants; funding for ambulance providers, physicians, community behavioral-health providers, and home health agencies; and funding for certain long-term services and supports, including day programs such as adult-day-health or day-habilitation programs that have converted from group programs to actively serving members via alternative means.