The Biden administration on Friday announced the allocation of billions of dollars in funding intended to aid hospitals and combat the COVID-19 pandemic in rural communities.
The administration announced $500 million in funding through the Department of Agriculture would be used to create the Emergency Rural Health Care Grant Program, which will allocate most of that money to assist rural hospitals and boost COVID-19 testing and vaccination efforts.
The program will also provide more than $100 million in grants to make rural health care providers more viable in the long-term, the White House said.
Separately, the Department of Health and Human Services is allocating $8.5 billion from the American Rescue Plan signed into law earlier this year to pay health care providers in rural communities who provide Medicare, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Plan services as compensation for lost revenue amid the pandemic. ...
