Emergency federal aid to health care providers and hospitals during the pandemic is a prime example of how well-intentioned policies can be derailed in implementation, according to a report co-authored by Professor Rosemary Batt that was published Thursday by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Curbing Inequities in the Distribution of Emergency Relief: Lessons from the CARES Act in Health Care, by Eileen Appelbaum and Batt examines the inequities within the initial CARES Act allocation formulas, how the rules evolved, and offers lessons to craft equitable emergency aid policies in the future.

One of the report’s recommendations is to audit financial statements of hospitals and other health care providers with gross revenues above a threshold so regulators can better identify fraudulent use of bailout funds.

The timeliness of the report’s recommendations was made clear in Wednesday’s State of the Union address, the authors said. President Biden announced plans to expand the Department of Justice’s COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force by appointing a chief prosecutor to lead teams of specialized prosecutors and agents focusing on major targets of pandemic fraud.

The full version of this story appears on the ILR website.
Mary Catt is the ILR School’s communications director.