After successfully blocking attempts to use unspent Provider Relief Fund dollars to fund a bipartisan infrastructure package, which passed the Senate earlier this month, senior living advocates are turning their attention to securing disbursement of those dollars to their intended beneficiaries — including assisted living providers.

Wednesday during an Argentum Advocates briefing with members, Public Policy Manager Kyle Loeber laid out the association’s #ReleasethePRF campaign. The five-week effort is designed to increase pressure on the White House to release the approximately $44 million left in the fund. That pressure is being applied via direct outreach, grassroots engagement, strategic media placements and support from members of Congress.

“The administration holds the keys on letting this funding out the door,” Loeber said. “Even though it’s August and Capitol Hill has gone home, we are still here and want to share our stories, how difficult it’s been and how much we need this funding.”

This week — the third week of the campaign — Argentum relaunched its Standing With Seniors website, which includes a “Seniors Can’t Wait” counter. The counter highlights the length of time assisted living providers have been waiting for greater allocation of federal Provider Relief Fund dollars. As of Wednesday, the counter read 516 days.

“As our nation’s senior living providers continue to grapple with new variants of the COVID-19 virus, we’re still waiting for the Biden administration to deliver funding that was first approved more than 50 days ago,” Argentum President and CEO James Balda said. 

The Provider Relief Fund was established in March 2020 through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The intent of the fund was to help operators with pandemic losses. Assisted living providers, Argentum said, have incurred almost $30 billion in expenses and losses from COVID-19 due to personal protective equipment, staffing needs and overtime and “hero pay,” on top of a loss of revenue due to record-low occupancy rates. 

But less than 1% of the Provider Relief Fund has been allocated to assisted living operators, much less than the percentage nursing home operators have received.

Each week, the #ReleasethePRF campaign features a different theme and asks for active engagement from the senior living industry. Week 1 began Aug. 11 with a joint letter from Argentum, the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living, the American Seniors Housing Association and LeadingAge asking for immediate release of the Provider Relief Fund dollars. 

Last week, Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) began passing around a bipartisan sign-on letter — which now has support from 35 senators — to add pressure to the Department of Health and Human Services to distribute funds.

“When you have senators going out publicly, on the record, to the administration in a bipartisan way to ask for accountability on this, and then to specifically list how senior care communities and facilities have been left behind, it really does gain attention,” Loeber said.

Upcoming weeks will feature video stories from senior living providers and a Labor Day call to action to release funds.