COVID-19 Accelerated and Advance Payments

On March 28, 2020, CMS expanded the existing COVID-19 Accelerated and Advance Payments (CAAP) Program to a broader group of Medicare Part A providers and Part B suppliers. Accelerated and advance payments are payments intended to provide necessary funds to Part A providers and Part B suppliers, respectively, when there is a disruption in claims submission and/or claims processing. CMS can also offer these payments in circumstances such as national emergencies, or natural disasters in order to accelerate cash flow to the impacted health care providers and suppliers.

In accordance with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (P.L. 116-136), the expanded CAAP program provided additional flexibilities for a specific subset of providers, including inpatient hospitals, children’s hospitals, certain cancer hospitals, and critical access hospitals. These flexibilities included extended repayment timeframes and increased payment amounts.

The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act (P.L. 116-159), enacted on October 1, 2020, amended the repayment terms for all providers and suppliers who requested and received accelerated and advance payment(s) during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). Details on repayment terms are noted below and included in the Fact Sheet found at the link below.

Please note that, CMS has stopped accepting applications for accelerated or advance payments as they relate to the COVID-19 PHE.

Under the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act, repayment will now begin one year from the issuance date of each provider or supplier’s accelerated or advance payment.  After that first year, Medicare will automatically recoup 25 percent of Medicare payments otherwise owed to the provider or supplier for eleven months.  At the end of the eleven-month period, recoupment will increase to 50 percent for another six months.  If the provider or supplier is unable to repay the total amount of the accelerated or advance payment during this time-period (a total of 29 months), CMS will issue demand letters requiring repayment of any outstanding balance, subject to an interest rate of four percent consistent with the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021.

To view the Press Release, click here: Press Release

To view the Fact Sheet, click here: Fact Sheet (PDF)

To view the Frequently Asked Questions, click here: FAQs (PDF)

To view the Medicare Learning Network article, click here: MLN (PDF)