COVID-19 Small Business Resources
August 31 - September 6, 2020
New CARES Act funding for primary care provides to COVID-19-related vaccine gaps
The Arkansas Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (ARAAP) announced on Aug. 20 that it has worked with the state Department of Health to develop a proposal for CARES Act-funded reimbursements to help primary care doctors invest in vaccine-related outreach and infrastructure to close these COVID-19-related gaps in childhood vaccinations.
In August, the Arkansas Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Steering Committee approved $8.77 million in federal funds from the Coronavirus Relief Fund to support primary care physicians (PCPs) in efforts to ensure children are fully vaccinated. During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Arkansas children and youth have missed almost 60,000 immunizations compared to 2019 levels, with almost two-thirds of missed immunizations being in lower-income or uninsured children, officials said.
“The last thing Arkansas pediatricians want to see during the coronavirus pandemic is an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease like measles or chicken pox. Vaccines are safe and effective, and serious disease can occur if children are not immunized. We applaud the Arkansas CARES Act Steering Committee for making this investment in children’s health prior to the start of the school year,” said Dr. Gary Wheeler, president of the state association for pediatricians.
According association officials, reimbursements are available for enhanced immunization efforts including, but not limited to:
• Vaccine outreach initiatives to encourage parents to have their children vaccinated
• School- or childcare-linked childhood immunization delivery to ensure schools and childcare centers meet the October deadline for students to be fully immunized
• Patient and visitor safety procedures to ensure families who want to make an office visit feel safe doing so
• Enhanced vaccine program infrastructure, such as additional staff for vaccine program management to oversee increased vaccine delivery
• Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems optimization to improve and automate outreach
• Mass flu vaccination or parking lot immunization events to prevent multiple simultaneous disease outbreaks.
To qualify for reimbursements, practices must be an Arkansas Medicaid Primary Care Case Management (PCCM) provider who serves Arkansas Medicaid pediatric beneficiaries, not be owned or operated by the State of Arkansas and participate in the Vaccines for Children program. Reimbursements are for eligible costs incurred between March 1 and Oct. 1, 2020.
Medical providers must submit required documentation to DHS detailing expenditures by Oct. 15. They may receive reimbursements for enhanced vaccine-related expenditures that are not reimbursable through other sources, and the maximum reimbursement for each practice is $30 per Medicaid-attributed child as determined by DHS using attribution reports from March.
For more information, visit the Arkansas Department of Human Services’ website for FAQs and to access the application at https://humanservices.arkansas.gov/resources/response-covid-19/response-covid-19-providers-1.
IRS takes new steps to ensure people with children receive $500 Economic Impact Payments
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said it is continuing efforts to find those people that are eligible to the $500 Economic Impact Payments for their children, which was part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (Act) approved by Congress in late March.
As part of that effort, the IRS has reopened the registration period for federal beneficiaries who didn’t receive $500 per child payments earlier this year. Federal tax officials urge federal benefit recipients to use the IRS.gov non-Filers tool through Sept. 30 to enter information on their qualifying children to receive the supplemental $500 payments.
Those eligible to provide this information include people with qualifying children who receive Social Security retirement, survivor or disability benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Railroad Retirement benefits and Veterans Affairs Compensation and Pension (C&P) benefits and did not file a tax return in 2018 or 2019. The IRS anticipates the catch-up payments, equal to $500 per eligible child, will be issued by mid-October.
“IRS employees have been working non-stop to deliver more than 160 million Economic Impact Payments in record time. We have coordinated outreach efforts with thousands of community-based organizations and have provided materials in more than two dozen languages,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “Given the extremely high demand for EIP assistance, we have continued to prioritize and increase resource allocations to eligible individuals, including those who may be waiting on some portion of their payment. To help with this, we are allocating additional IRS resources to ensure eligible recipients receive their full payments during this challenging time.”
Any beneficiary who misses the Sept. 30 deadline will need to wait until next year and claim it as a credit on their 2020 federal income tax return. Those who received their original Economic Impact Payment by direct deposit will also have any supplemental payment direct deposited to the same account. Others will receive a check.
Eligible recipients can check the status of their payments using the Get My Payment tool on IRS.gov. In addition, a notice verifying the $500-per-child supplemental payment will be sent to each recipient and should be retained with other tax records.
Though most Americans have already received their Economic Impact Payments, the IRS reminds people with little or no income and who are not required to file tax returns that they remain eligible to receive an Economic Impact Payment. People in this group should also use the Non-Filers’ tool – but they need to act by Oct. 15 to receive their payment this year.
Anyone who misses the Oct. 15 deadline will need to wait until next year and claim it as a credit on their 2020 federal income tax return.
The IRS has already handed out more than $260 billion in COVID-19 stimulus payments to low and middle-income tax filers with adjusted gross income up to $75,000 for individuals and up to $150,000 for married couples filing joint returns will receive the full payment.
Under the CARES Act, most eligible taxpayers who filed tax returns for either 2019 or 2018 have automatically receive an economic impact payment of up to $1,200 for individuals or $2,400 for married couples. Talks have stalled in Congress on another COVID-19 emergency relief bill that includes another economic impact payment to individuals, couples and families making that closely mirrors the CARES Act, along with a $600 per week extended unemployment benefit to millions of sidelined workers.
President Trump issues executive memo for $400 weekly unemployment extension; court challenges loom
In the face of stalled congressional talks over a new $1 trillion-plus COVID-19 stimulus package, President Donald Trump on Saturday (Aug. 8) issued presidential memorandum to provide a short-term extension of federal unemployment benefits while Democratic and Republican leaders in the U.S. House and Senate negotiate a longer-term plan.
Department of Labor officials said they will now work closely with Arkansas and other states and the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to assist in providing the $400 extension made available by the president’s executive order. However, Democrats countered on Monday that the president’s order could takes several weeks to implement and cost states billions of dollars without approval by Congress.
In the earlier Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act signed by Trump in late March, Congress first approved a stimulus payment of at least $1200 to most American families making less than $75,000 annually. That legislation also included the popular Paycheck Protection Program to aid small business owners and included the original $600 per week unemployment extension for millions of jobless workers. However, that extension expired on July 25, which could lead to higher unemployment in the coming weeks, economic experts say.
In his executive order, President Trump also OK’ed a payroll tax holiday to most American families making less than $100,000 per year. Trump has also stated that if he is elected in November, he would make that payroll tax extension permanent, which Democrats say would put Social Security and Medicaid funding at risk.
Two other president memos also provided protection to COVID-19-impacted renters and homeowners from evictions through and student loan payment deferments, respectively. In circumventing Congress, all four executive orders could be challenged in federal court, which could delay the unemployment extension and other benefits for several weeks.
In May, House Democrats approved the so-called HEROES Act, an 1800-page coronavirus relief bill that extends the $600 per week unemployment insurance supplement through Jan. 31, 2021 and then allows the supplement to continue through March 31, 2021 for those who have not exhausted their benefits. That bill, among other things, also OKs additional funding for voter protections for the upcoming 2020 presidential election, $25 billion for the U.S. Postal Service, and provides additional food stamp funding.
On the other hand, a smaller $1 trillion proposal penned by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would cut unemployment benefits to $200 per week until states can implement a 70% wage replacement program, which could take weeks for Arkansas and other states to set up. Lawmakers and White House negotiators, led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, must reach an agreement this week before Congress leaves the nation’s capital for the month-long August recess.
Both parties have agreed on providing billions in COVID-19 funding for local school reopening and at least another $1,200 stimulus check to most American families, which mirrors the similar proposal approved in the first CARES Act on March 27.
Gov. Hutchinson issues executive order to allow Arkansans to vote absentee due to COVID-19
Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Aug. 7 issued an executive order allowing Arkansans to vote absentee if they are concerned that voting in person may be a risk to their health or the health of others because of COVID-19. Executive Order 20-44 also allows elections officials to start processing the absentee ballots a week earlier than usual to allow for an anticipated increase in the number of absentee voters.
Hutchinson issued the executive order in response to an official request from the Arkansas Association of County Clerks ahead of the presidential election on Nov. 3, which is less than three months way. Early voting in Arkansas’ 75 counties begins on Oct. 19, and voters must register two weeks before to participate in the fall election.
“This order affirms Secretary of State John Thurston’s position that the fear of exposure to COVID-19 or of exposing others at the polls is reason enough for a voter to cast an absentee ballot,” said Hutchinson. “If a significant number of voters chooses that option, elections officials could be overwhelmed. We’ve already seen a significant increase in the number of applications for absentee ballots. This executive order builds in extra time for them to process and authenticate absentee ballots to ensure an accurate count and a fair election.”
The additional number of days for processing ballots will coincide with the 15-day early voting period. During that time, elections officials will be allowed to process only the registration information from the outer envelopes of an absentee ballot. By Arkansas law, they will not be permitted to open the ballots and count absentee votes until 8:30 a.m. election day. The application for absentee ballots and the deadlines is available on the Secretary of State’s website.
In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has alleged there is a distinct difference between absentee and mail-in voting, which he says is rife with fraud and potential abuse. However, the verification process is the largely the same for absentee and mail-in ballots, and most states consider them to be the same thing.
In the recent stalled proposals for a fifth COVID-19 stimulus package that includes an extension of the $600 unemployment compensation that ended on July 25, one measure includes billions of dollars in new financing to help state and local election officials meet the needs of an unprecedented increase in absentee voting due to COVID-19 health safety concerns.
