Letter to Charles Schumer, Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, Minority Leader of the House - Sinema, Kelly, AZ Delegation Members Urge Congressional Leaders to Provide Covid Funding to Support Vulnerable Arizonans & Health Providers

Letter

Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, and Minority Leader
McCarthy:

We write to you today to emphasize the need for additional support for health providers caring for
the most vulnerable Arizonans, which include our rural providers, senior care communities, and
safety net providers, like Federally-Qualified Health Centers and Critical Access Hospitals. As
providers and health facilities in our state continue to struggle with insufficient staffing levels and
elevated levels of delayed care, we believe additional relief dollars, including funding for the
Uninsured Program within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), remains critical.

Arizona has received just $227 in Provider Relief Funds per capita, the third lowest amount among
all states and Washington, DC. For safety net providers, rural providers, and community health
centers who were operating at narrow margins even before the pandemic and whose patient
populations are among the hardest hit by COVID-19, such levels of relief are entirely insufficient
and impact their ability to provide care. Some of these facilities, including Arizona's only publicly funded health system which operates the largest inpatient behavioral health program in the state, is already reporting a $50 million shortfall for 2022. With potential new variants looming, Arizona's
rural providers will be unable to afford the needed nursing staff to care for their at-risk
communities, many of whom are medically-underserved, including agricultural, older, and tribal
populations. In addition, Arizona's long term care facilities, including assisted living, memory care
and similar elder-care providers, have received a disproportionately low amount of financial relief,
and many continue to operate at a loss--and may have to close if they do not receive additional
support. We must do more to ensure providers caring for our state's most vulnerable are able to
remain operational.

For more than two years, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) COVID-19
Uninsured Program has provided reliable reimbursement to providers who vaccinate, test, or treat
individuals without health insurance. This has been a lifeline for many health care providers. As you
know, the Uninsured Program stopped accepting new claims for testing and treatment on March 22
and will no longer accept claims for vaccination on April 5 due to lack of funds. With more than 800,000 Arizonans without health insurance, this will have a significant impact on the ability of
vulnerable Arizonans to receive care. Need for this assistance remains: Sonora Quest Diagnostic,
which processes 60 percent of COVID-19 tests in the state, has submitted more than 690,000 testing
claims to the Uninsured Program, with 190,000 of those claims from the recent Omicron wave still
largely awaiting reimbursement.

As described by the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers, which has served as
Arizona's primary care association for 37 years, "the loss of the Uninsured Program and a variety of
testing, vaccination, and treatment programs will have a devastating impact on our communities…
A significant portion of our communities will not be able to afford the increased costs for testing,
vaccinations and treatment and will not have access if these programs are ended."

We know the need for additional relief is dire. As Congress works to meet this need, we are also
committed to ensuring there is an accurate and timely accounting of all COVID-19 monies allocated
to date by HHS, which will only help target our efforts.

We appreciate the investments that have been made over the past two years to keep our health care
providers, and the patients they care for, afloat. We cannot let these investments end before our
state's needs do. Thank you for considering this request for supplemental funding.

Sincerely,