Tanner Returns $62.6 Million Earmarked For COVID-19 Care

CARROLLTON, GA — Tanner Health Systems received more than $62 million in coronavirus relief funds from the federal government — and then gave it back.

Why?

“We were mainly guided by doing the right thing,” said Tanner CEO Loy Howard. “We did not want to accept any funds that we were not due.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday that Tanner — which operates facilities in Carrollton, Villa Rica and Cartersville — was one of nine hospitals that returned federal money among nearly 400 nationwide that received the funds, meant to help with large numbers of COVID-19 patients.

“It did appear we did not qualify for it,” Howard said to the Atlanta newspaper.

It’s not that Tanner didn’t take a hit from the pandemic — the company lost $66 million when elective procedures and other appointments were canceled. But the second wave of federal funds was intended for patient care, not hospital recovery.

That Tanner received those funds in the first place illustrates a major criticism of the government’s relief program: insufficient oversight.

In June, Tanner’s management announced that it had returned all $62.6 million of CARES Act high-impact provider relief funds after determining it didn’t qualify.

“Tanner was not notified that it had qualified for the funds nor that the funds were being dispersed,” the hospital system said in a statement posted to its website.

“Tanner has not and will not use funds that we believe were dispersed in error,” the system said in an earlier statement.

As a non-profit health system, Tanner operates five hospitals across west Georgia and east Alabama. It also operates a physician group in Atlanta.

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