Since March 2020, Congress has allocated $178 billion to the COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund. Established under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the fund was meant to help providers “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus” and to “reimburse…eligible health care providers for health care related expenses or lost revenues that are attributable to coronavirus.” From the outset, the fund has faced sharp criticism from congressional lawmakers, industry groups, and other stakeholders. In this brief, we use the most recent publicly available information to update our earlier work on the Provider Relief Fund and review how the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has allocated fund grants. We find that all $178 billion in provider relief funds were allocated and most of the amount distributed as of February 2022. Since that time, the agency has released more money, so it is likely that the Provider Relief Fund is largely depleted as of July 2022. At the same time, however, providers have returned nearly $10 billion in funds because they did not need the money or could not meet the terms and conditions, and HHS expects more returned funds to come.

Although Congress at present does not seem inclined to appropriate more health-related pandemic funding, the Provider Relief Fund will continue to remain active for the foreseeable future, with some providers returning excess funds over the next year. Given the controversy surrounding the fund, as well as the significance of these grants for many providers, continuing to follow provider relief will be important—both to ensure that funds were properly used and to help inform future policymaking.