AHA blog: Study on Provider Relief Fund uses arbitrary data to make incomplete conclusions

A recent study published in JAMA Health Forum that examines CARES Act Provider Relief Funds allocated to health care providers misses the point of those payments and makes arbitrary choices about which payments to include, writes Ashley Thompson, AHA senior vice president for public policy analysis and development, in a new AHA blog post. “In fact, it should not come as a surprise that larger hospitals and health systems serving more COVID-19 patients received more relief. While we welcome transparency of the PRF and exploration of the realities faced by hospitals during the pandemic, this study falls short.” Thompson says the study’s authors question the approach of high impact payments going “disproportionately to those that eventually had the most cases,” ignoring that this was the stated intent of these payments by the federal government. Read the full blog for more on why the study misses the mark.