Area health care providers received one of the largest CARES Act payouts nationwide
Florida’s 16th Congressional District ranks among the top 20 nationwide in the amount of health care aid received from the Provider Relief Fund that Congress approved as part of the CARES Act.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the 16th District, which is made up of Manatee County and parts of Hillsborough and Sarasota counties, received nearly $124 million from the payout — ranking 19th in the nation.
“Obviously I’m pleased to see health care providers in our area receiving assistance from the bill I supported in March,” U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan said in a prepared statement Friday. “Our hospitals, doctors and nurses are doing heroic work to keep people safe and they deserve all the support we can give them.”
FL-16 ranked 19th on the list of the nation’s 435 congressional districts. The money is meant to help cover health care costs and lost revenue because of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to ensure that uninsured Americans are tested for the novel coronavirus and receive medical treatment.
The allocation formula was based on Medicare’s fee-for-service and does not indicate whether healthcare providers accepted or rejected the funds.
While FL-16 received about $145 per person, other parts of South Florida received less funding, despite having a higher number of COVID-19 patients.
In Miami-Dade County, which quickly became Florida’s outbreak epicenter, healthcare providers received less than $100 per person. As of Friday, that part of South Florida had more than 13,600 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. FL-16 has fewer than 2,500 cases.
The $30 billion nationwide payout is a federal grant that does not need to be repaid. That money is also being used to help keep hospitals open during the pandemic.
Local governments in Manatee and Sarasota missed out on CARES Act funding because Congress set the population threshold to 500,000 residents. If lawmakers consider another stimulus package, Buchanan has announced support for lowering the population requirement to 400,000.
