COVID-19 Concordance Response

CARES Act

April 23, 2020: New Announcements Today on Provider Relief Fund Allocations: 
Today, HHS announced additional information about allocations of the $100 billion Provider Relief Act created in the CARES Act.  As the Secretary said again today, “our goal in disbursing the money from the CARES Act [is] to get it out the door as quickly as possible while targeting it to those who are most impacted by the pandemic.”  Below is a short outline of the information released, but for those of you who want more detail, I would point you to two resources:  (1) Fact Sheet, & (2) Secretary Azar’s remarks at the top of today’s press briefing on the announcement.  

High Level Description of PRF Allocation Information Released Today:

• $50 Billion General Allocation to Providers:  $50 billion of the PRF will be allocated for general distribution to Medicare facilities and providers impacted by COVID-19, based on eligible providers’ 2018 net patient revenue. The distribution will also take into consideration the challenges faced by facilities serving a significantly disproportionate number of low-income patients, as reflected by their Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) Adjustment. As you know, $30 Billion of the $50 has already been distributed, the $20 billion balance will be distributed on a rolling basis, beginning at the end of this week.  More details provided in the attached fact sheet and the Secretary’s remarks.

• $10 billion for Providers in Hot Spots:  $10 billion of the PRF will be allocated for a targeted distribution to hospitals in areas that have been particularly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.  Note there is an April 23^rd midnight PT deadline for submitting certain information.  More details provided in the attached fact sheet and the Secretary’s remarks.

• $10 billion for Rural Health Providers:  $10 billion will be allocated for rural health clinics and hospitals, most of which operate on especially thin margins and are far less likely to be profitable than their urban counterparts. More details provided in the attached fact sheet and the Secretary’s remarks.

• Reimbursement for Providers Treating Uninsured COVID-19 Patients: Every health care provider who has provided treatment for uninsured suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients on or after February 4, 2020, can request claims reimbursement from the PRF at Medicare rates, subject to available funding.
  Providers can resister for the program on April 27, 2020 through a portal, https://www.hrsa.gov/coviduninsuredclaim, and begin submitting claims in early May.  More detail is found here.
  
  
• Other:  Some savvy readers will note that this does not necessarily add up to the full $100 billion.  On that score, also announced is that some providers will receive further, separate funding , including skilled nursing facilities, dentists, and providers that solely take Medicaid

April 22, 2020: Provider Relief Fund Update:
As you know, the CARES Act appropriated $100 billion to establish a Provider Relief Fund.  This Fund, administered by the Secretary of HHS is being used to distribute payments to health care entities across the country that have been affected by the coronavirus. To date, $30 billion has been distributed generally to health care entities across the country.

HHS will soon make targeted distributions to hospitals and other facilities that have been particularly affected by the increased burden of caring for those with the coronavirus. To inform how these funds are distributed, HHS is asking all hospitals to provide the following information:

For each facility with a Medicare Tax Identification Number (TIN):

• Total number of Intensive Care Unit beds as of April 10, 2020
• Total number of admissions with a positive diagnosis for COVID-19 from January 1, 2020 to April 10, 2020
• National Provider Identifier

How will providers share the information being requested and what steps do they need to take to be considered for impact funding? 

Submitters are being asked to provide this information through an authentication portal established by an HHS vendor, TeleTracking.  They will be able to submit this data via data entry at an individual hospital level, entering multiple hospitals at one time, or batch upload of data of multiple hospitals via a designated individual or third party entity.

The health care provider’s site administrator received an email from HHS on Sunday April 12^th, or thereafter, with instructions and a link to register on this portal. If providers have not already done so, they should register on the portal as directed in the email.

This process has been created to minimize burden, and should not require more than 10 minutes.  If it is not clear who within an organization received this notification, or if providers have questions about the registration process, they can contact TeleTracking Technical Support at 877-570-6903.

To help HHS continue to move provider relief funding out to providers quickly, submitters must deliver this information by 11:59 p.m. PT, Thursday April 23. 

Providers should understand that submitting the data is a prerequisite to payment, but is not a guarantee of eligibility for any amount.

Critical Inventory 

Concordance recognizes the vital need to protect front-line healthcare professionals as they provide care for patients across the country. In this ever-evolving situation, we are doing everything possible to efficiently and effectively manage and maintain our supply of PPE products and other critical items that have increased in demand.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created industry-wide challenges that include delays in inventory replenishment and implementation of product allocations. We are experiencing a multitude of backorders and industry inventory levels are declining at rates never before experienced. As a result, customers may receive partial shipments due to out of stock inventory and backorders. Our local Customer Service Specialists and Account Managers will continue to keep their Concordance customers updated on inventory availability for their specific location.

We are working with our supplier partners and trade groups, such as the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA) to understand and manage the pandemic’s impact on product supply and the subsequent product allocations that have been put into place.

We recognize that this COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve daily and we will adapt our practices to focus on delivering the critical supplies that our customers need to care for their patients.

Supply Chain Collaboration

FormLabs Partnership
We are proud to announce our innovative partnership with FormLabs Ohio to create nasal swabs in the fight to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

News Articles/Videos About Partnership
Local business making swabs for COVID-19 testing

Concordance partners with NW Ohio company to provide testing swabs

As pressure grows to reopen economy, a scramble to make nasal swabs for coronavirus testing leads to 3D printers

Continuity of Supply
Concordance is making every effort to ensure the continuity of supply. We have implemented daily huddles for all our management and leadership teams to quickly assess the ever-evolving state of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on our daily updates, Concordance will adapt our operations in order to proactively support our customer’s changing needs.

Working with our supplier partners to understand and manage the pandemic’s impact on product supply, Concordance also collaborates with trade groups, including the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA) to respond to industry wide challenges. Following the current guidelines set forth by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), Concordance continues to engage with customers, industry experts and government officials to assist customers in urgent need of medical supplies.

Concordance has been intimately involved in a Private Sector COVID-19 Supply Chain Coalition since mid-March which consists of key distributors and numerous federal agencies including Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and finally the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). This COVID-19 Supply Chain Coalition was created to form a direct line of communication between the Healthcare Distribution community and the Federal government in order to ensure proper allocation of product within the healthcare supply chain.

As the COVID-19 pandemic changes daily, we will continue to closely monitor developments across the country and modify our operations accordingly.

Customer Communications

July 10, 2020

Dear Customers,

Your continued dedication to positively impacting the lives of your patients and the health of our communities is mirrored by our unwavering commitment to supporting your cause. As we move through the summer months of extended regulations and product shortages due to the pandemic, we wanted to update you on a few items of impact and help you plan accordingly.

We are beginning to see a shortage of gloves throughout the supply chain and want to ensure that our customers are adequately prepared for any potential surge capacity that may occur in the coming months. According to the CDC, surge capacity refers to the ability to manage a sudden, unexpected increase in patient volume that would otherwise severely challenge or exceed the present capacity of a facility. While there are no widely accepted measurements or triggers to distinguish this from daily patient care volume, surge capacity is a useful framework from which to approach a decreased supply of gloves during the COVID-19 response.

Three general strata have been used to describe surge capacity, which can be used to prioritize measures in conserving glove supplies along the continuum of care. Below are the FDA and CDC suggested strategies for each strata:

Conventional Capacity:

• Continue providing patient care without any change in daily contemporary practices.

Contingency Capacity:

• Use of gloves past their manufacturer-designated shelf life for training activities.
• Use of gloves conforming to other U.S. and international standards.

Crisis Capacity:

• Use of gloves past their manufacturer-designated shelf life for healthcare delivery.
• Prioritize the use of non-sterile disposable gloves.
• Consider non-healthcare glove alternatives.
• Extended use of disposable medical gloves.

We are here to help you manage your current glove inventory and supply chain, understand your glove utilization rates and prepare your storerooms and ordering processes to help ensure adequate glove supply during the coming months. Please reach out directly to your Account Manager and Customer Support team for collaboration opportunities concerning your glove supply.

We are also working to enhance our StrategicStorage™ program to offer the most efficient, effective and timely pandemic supply solution to our customers. We will share information on this program, along with other industry, governmental and internal updates on our COVID-19 Resource page.

If you have any concerns, needs or collaboration opportunities that can be addressed by our team to support your facility during this time, please feel free to reach out at anytime.

Stay Safe | Stay Healthy | Stay Awesome

Gina Marchese
Executive Vice President

Past Communications

April 9, 2020: Letter from the CEO

April 23, 2020: Letter from Gina Marchese, EVP

May 8, 2020: Letter from Gina Marchese, EVP

May 22, 2020: Letter from Gina Marchese, EVP

June 12, 2020: Letter from Gina Marchese, EVP