Hospitals Wrestle With Scope of Relief Aid as Audits Loom (Corrected)

Hospitals and health-care providers making use of federal relief aid during the pandemic should prepare themselves for eventual audits, even as they grapple with how the funds may be used, attorneys say.

Congress appropriated $175 billion under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to help providers fighting the crisis. The law permits use of the funds to cover health-care expenses and lost revenue attributable to Covid-19, but it provides little guidance as to how far those funds will spread.

What exactly is meant by those terms is the “$64,000, or maybe $64 million, question,” said Elizabeth F. ...