AHA urges Federal Reserve, FDIC to be ready to aid providers

The AHA today urged the nation's primary federal regulators for insured depository institutions to prepare to take prompt action to assist health care providers on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic should the need to do so arise.

In the letter to the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, AHA requested that the agencies be prepared to recommend via an Interagency Statement that lending institutions ease burdens of various financial covenants, offer forbearance on timing of payments of principal and interest, and, if necessary, extend or expand borrowing entities.

"The financial impact of [COVID-19] may significantly reduce hospitals' liquidity and limit their access to capital markets and bank debt," AHA said. An Interagency Statement "targeted to financial institutions working with health care providers would be a useful first step in assuring that hospitals and health systems can maintain essential operations," AHA said.