The American Medical Association is asking HHS to delay clawbacks of the Provider Relief Fund.
HHS asked providers to pay back around $100 million in pandemic assistance for failing to comply with the agency's reporting requirements and deadlines.
The HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration sent notices to noncompliant facilities March 10. Providers have 30 days to return the funds.
"If you do not return the funds, HRSA will initiate the recovery of all funds not reported on" during the first reporting period, HHS said.
The AMA is asking HRSA to reopen the first reporting period to allow recipients who did not report the funds by the November 2021 deadline to report them. The AMA said the clawbacks related to underreporting particularly affected small and rural physician practices.
"The AMA has heard that a number of practices were unaware of the reporting requirement or the deadline; additional efforts to garner more responses would allow those practices to keep the PRF funds they received," the AMA said. "The underreporting appears to have particularly impacted small and rural practices, which are often under-resourced while providing critical healthcare services."
The AMA said it will work with HRSA in a targeted outreach campaign to the practices that didn't report.