Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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a. STANDARDS FOR IDENTIFYING A PUBLIC HEALTH OR NEGATIVE ECONOMIC IMPACT Standards: Designating a Public Health Impact Public Comment: Many commenters expressed uncertainty about how to determine whether a use of funds, beyond those specifically enumerated as eligible, might be an eligible public health response. For example, many commenters submitted questions asking whether specific uses of funds would be eligible. Others described what they considered to be impacts of the pandemic and argued that uses of funds to respond to these issues should be eligible. Some commenters requested that Treasury provide additional detail to guide their assessments of eligible uses of funds. For example, a commenter requested more clarification around exactly what and whose medical expenses can be covered. These comments ranged in their specificity and covered the full range of the enumerated eligible uses. Treasury Response: Treasury is clarifying that when assessing whether a program or service is an eligible use to respond to the public health impacts of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the Department will consider the two eligibility requirements discussed below. These standards apply to all proposed public health uses. First, there must be a negative public health impact or harm experienced by an individual or a class. For ease of administration, the interim final rule allowed, and the final rule maintains the ability for, recipients to identify a public health impact on a population or group of individuals, referred to as a "class," and to provide assistance to that class. In determining whether an individual is eligible for a program designed to address a harm experienced by a class, the recipient need only document that the individual is within the class that experienced a public health impact, see section Standards: Designating Other Impacted Classes. In the case of 21