HMH to be awarded over $3 million dollars

More than $16 million in federal aid will go to four rural Arkansas hospitals that received preliminary approval for the funds on Tuesday, October 17th from state lawmakers. The full Arkansas Legislative Council recently voted last Friday October 20th on whether to disburse the funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, aimed at covering costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arkansas received an initial pot of more than $1.5 billion for lawmakers to distribute, and legislators set aside $60 million in August 2022 as emergency relief for struggling hospitals.

The Legislative Council’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review subcommittee approved the following awards with no dissent: • $3,441,839 to Howard Memorial Hospital in Nashville • $4,589,119 to Baxter Health in Mountain Home • $5,000,000 to Fulton County Hospital in Salem • $3,301,356 to Arkansas Methodist Medical Center in Paragould.

The four hospitals are among 18 that the consulting firm Alvarez and Marsal evaluated to determine whether they are eligible for ARPA funds. The state hired the firm to help legislators decide how to prioritize hospitals’ requests for the dwindling supply of federal pandemic relief funds.