Assisted Living Facilities Eligible for Federal Pandemic Relief

Assisted living facilities that may have been previously ineligible to apply for pandemic relief under the federal Provider Relief Fund Phase 2 General Distribution allocation will now be able to do so, the Trump administration announced Tuesday.

The financial assistance, which will help minimize hardships associated with the Covid-19 outbreak, was made possible through the CARES Act and the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act.

Assisted living facilities have incurred increased costs for protective gear, staffing, testing, and cleaning in order to protect their residents from Covid-19.

“By expanding the Provider Relief Fund to assisted living facilities, we are supporting more frontline providers and helping to protect the nearly 1 million vulnerable older Americans in their care,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.

Nearly 1 million older adults and people with disabilities reside in roughly 28,000 assisted living facilities that have been hit hard by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Roughly half of those facilities are now operating at a loss, nearly three out of four have a profit margin of 3% or less, and nearly two out of three won’t sustain operations for another year under the current economic situation, according to an August survey by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living.

They have until Sept. 13 to begin the application process.