Covid-19 Update: CMS says it will begin distributing federal provider grants based on Medicare revenue; Kaiser Family Foundation estimates covid-19 cost to uninsured could be upwards of $42 billion

Team of UK HealthCare respiratory therapists and nurses who take care of
patients suffering from covid-19. UKNow photo.  

As news develops in Kentucky about the coronavirus and its covid-19 disease, this item may be updated. Official state guidance is at https://kycovid19.ky.gov.

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will begin distributing $30 billion of the $100 billion Congress allocated in an emergency provider relief fund, Modern Healthcare reports. CMS Administrator Seema Verma said the grant funds will be distributed based on Medicare revenue, a methodology that America's Essential Hospitals President and CEO Bruce Siegel says in a statement does little to help some "essential hospitals, which care for disproportionate numbers of uninsured and Medicaid patients." 
• Recognizing that their estimates are "highly uncertain" and that they will be "refined" as more data becomes available, the Kaiser Family Foundation has issued a report that says the estimated cost of treating the uninsured hospitalized with covid-19 could run upwards of $42 billion, which would consume more than 40% of the $100 billion fund Congress created to help hospitals and other providers.  
• Shelby Martin, a registered respiratory therapist who has worked for UK HealthCare for 20 years says that in addition to providing critical care, health care providers are also offering emotional support to covid-19 patients who are not allowed to have visitors, UKNow reports. "We have to be able to be there for these patients and their families," she said. "It is so difficult but necessary that these patients fight this disease away from their loved ones. This is where we step in -- we become their family so that they are not alone."