Skip to Main Content

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has hired several separate outside contractors to police the billions in Covid-19 grants it sent to hospitals and health care providers, federal records show.

The contracts, which have not previously been reported, are a sign that the federal government is beefing up enforcement on the grants that were intended to help health care providers recover from the pandemic. The Trump administration faced criticism for initially sending money out to health care providers based on past income, and not on need, and punted a difficult oversight process to the Biden team.

advertisement

As the Biden administration starts to crack down on its bookkeeping, the pace of sending out new funds has slowed. Roughly a quarter of the money Congress set aside to help providers recover from Covid-19 — more than $50 billion — remains unspent. The Department of Health and Human Services has not sent out another major tranche of funding since October 2020 — meaning no meaningful funds went out to help with last winter’s massive surges or the ones this summer, as the Delta variant has spread.

Get unlimited access to award-winning journalism and exclusive events.

Subscribe

STAT encourages you to share your voice. We welcome your commentary, criticism, and expertise on our subscriber-only platform, STAT+ Connect

To submit a correction request, please visit our Contact Us page.