Among your first steps, you should engage your legal and financial team that serves your practice.  Your attorney, your banker and your tax accountant can help with expertise and resources as we all begin the new process of applying for the government loans and grants.  You can find summaries of the provisions of the act as published by the firm KPMG here and the Chicago based law firm of Patzik, Frank & Samotny, LTD here.

In short, the package is three-pronged*:

1. Emergency grants of up to $10,000 from a $10 billion fund.
2. Relief for existing SBA loan holders from a fund of $17 billion, which is meant to cover six months of payments.
3. $350 billion in new forgivable loans, with loans available of up to $10 million per business, based on how much the company paid its employees between Jan. 1 and Feb. 29. The loans will carry an interest rate up to 4 percent.  Information on applying for these loans has not yet been made available as of 3/28/20. 
   
   

According to MarketWatch, the Small Business Administration will oversee the Paycheck Protection Program to distribute the money that can be partially forgiven if the companies meet certain requirements. The loans will be available to companies with 500 or fewer employees.

The package allows banks to lend directly to businesses with loans backed by the SBA.

Here is the full text of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The SBA has a website devoted solely to Coronavirus measures.

Here’s where you can apply for the SBA loans.

If the business uses the loan funds for the approved purposes and maintains the average size of its full-time workforce based on when it received the loan, the company will only need to pay back the interest accrued.

According to The New York Times, businesses would not have to repay portions that were spent on paying employees, a mortgage, rent or utilities. Approval is expected to take about two weeks. Business owners also won’t have to provide personal guarantees or use all their available assets as collateral.

Businesses that have recently laid off workers would be required to repay a larger portion of their loans, and loans covering salaries of more than $100,000 a year would not qualify for forgiveness.

SBA RESOURCES  https://www.sba.gov/page/coronavirus-covid-19-small-business-guidance-loan-resources#section-header-4

TO FIND A LENDER FOR THE SBA LOANS  https://www.sba.gov/partners/lenders/microloan-program/list-lenders

CMS Announces expansion of accelerated and advance
payment program for Medicare

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing an expansion of its accelerated and advance payment program for Medicare participating health care providers and suppliers, to ensure they have the resources needed to combat the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). This program expansion, which includes changes from the recently enacted Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, is one way that CMS is working to lessen the financial hardships of providers facing extraordinary challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and ensures the nation’s providers can focus on patient care. There has been significant disruption to the healthcare industry, with providers being asked to delay non-essential surgeries and procedures, other healthcare staff unable to work due to childcare demands, and disruption to billing, among the challenges related to the pandemic.  The CMS News release can be found here. https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/trump-administration-provides-financial-relief-medicare-providers

Summary of other LUGPA information and resources on COVID-19 response:

• On 3/26/20, a LUGPA program on telemedicine was presented by Mike Fabrizio and Alan Winkler.  The recorded program can be viewed here. 
• On 3/26/20 LUGPA presented a teleconference  on the CARES bill and what it means for urology groups was held.  The slides and audio recording can be found here. 
• The health policy team, with Neal Shore as Moderator also recorded a program with UroToday The recording is available now online here. 
• A new Virtual CrossFire webinar  “How COVID-19 is Affecting your LUGPA Group: Candid Interviews with Dr. Neal Shore” is scheduled for 4/2/20.  A follow-up program will be held on 4/9/20  Information on how to register can be found here.
• LUGPA has a  COVID-19 Information Hub with links to authoritative sources on our website at https://www.lugpa.org/covid-19-information-hub 
• On 3/25/20 Dr. Harris communicated with the ABU about timing concerns for diplomates who are scheduled to take recertification exams.

* This information was gathered from publicly available sources, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials are for general informational purposes only.  Information on this website may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information.  This information contains links to other third-party websites.  Such links are only for the convenience of the reader; LUGPA and its members do not recommend or endorse the contents of the third-party sites.