The CEO of Ed Fraser Memorial Hospital in Macclenny, Fla., said his hospital missed out on federal COVID-19 aid because the larger city of Jacksonville, Fla., is nearby, according to News 4 Jax.
Ed Fraser Memorial is about 30 miles from Jacksonville's downtown. Edward Anderson, the hospital's CEO, said while Ed Fraser Memorial is a community hospital in a small county, it was denied federal money allocated for rural hospitals.
"Apparently we got knocked out because we are just a little bit too close to Jacksonville," Mr. Anderson told the news station. "Everyone I've talked to in Tallahassee [Florida's capital] says we're still classified as rural."
HHS distributed $22 billion from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act's provider relief fund to rural hospitals and those that treated large numbers of COVID-19 patients. Rural provider payments in Florida went to 200 providers that received $108.9 million.