Congress passed and on April 24, 2020, the President signed into law the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act. In addition to providing $310 billion to replenish the Paycheck Protection Program for forgivable loans to eligible small businesses, the PPPHCE Act provides an additional $75 billion to reimburse certain healthcare providers for healthcare-related expenses or lost revenues that are directly attributable to the coronavirus. (This supplements the $100 billion provided for in the CARES Act.) In addition, PPPHCE Act provides $25 billion for expenses associated with COVID-19 testing, with portions thereof specifically dedicated to the following:

  • $11 billion for states, localities, tribes, tribal organizations, urban Indian health organizations, or health service providers to tribes in accordance with various formulas (e.g., relative number of COVID-19 cases),
  • $1 billion to the CDC and other research entities for surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory capacity expansion, contact tracing, public health data surveillance and analytics infrastructure modernization, disseminating information after testing, and workforce support necessary to expand and improve COVID-19 testing,
  • $1.8 billion to the NIH for testing and associated technologies and to accelerate research and development of rapid testing processes,
  • $1 billion to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for research, development, manufacture, and production of diagnostic COVID-19 tests and supplies,
  • $22 million to the FDA to support activities associated with diagnostic and other tests,
  • $825 million for the Health Resources and Services Administration for primary healthcare, and
  • up to $1 billion to cover the cost of testing for the uninsured.

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