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NOVEL CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC "COVID-19"
 6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2021
Unusual or Infrequent Items, or Both [Abstract]  
COVID-19 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ("COVID-19")
In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. As a healthcare at home company, we have been and will continue to be impacted by the effects of COVID-19; however, we remain committed to carrying out our mission of caring for our patients. We will continue to closely monitor the impact of COVID-19 on all aspects of our business, including the impacts to our employees, patients and suppliers; however, at this time, we are unable to estimate the ultimate impact the pandemic will have on our consolidated financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.
On March 27, 2020, the CARES Act was signed into legislation. The CARES Act provided for $175 billion to healthcare providers, including hospitals on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of this total allocated amount, $30 billion was distributed immediately to providers based on their proportionate share of Medicare fee-for-service reimbursements in 2019. Healthcare providers were required to sign an attestation confirming receipt of the Provider Relief Fund ("PRF") funds and agree to the terms and conditions of payment. Our home health and hospice segments received approximately $100 million from the first $30 billion of funds distributed to healthcare providers in April 2020, which is inclusive of $2 million related to our joint venture care centers (equity method investments). We also acquired approximately $6 million of PRF funds in connection with the acquisition of AseraCare. Under the terms and conditions for receipt of the payment, we are allowed to use the funds to cover lost revenues and health care costs related to COVID-19, and we are required to properly and fully document the use of these funds in reports to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS").
For our wholly-owned subsidiaries, we have decided to only utilize PRF funds to the extent we have qualifying COVID-19 expenses, which totaled $5 million and $13 million for our home health and hospice segments during the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2021, respectively, and $21 million and $22 million during the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2020, respectively. Accordingly, for our wholly-owned subsidiaries, we have not used PRF funds to cover lost revenues resulting from COVID-19. The grant income associated with the COVID-19 expenses incurred during the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2021 and 2020 is reflected in other operating income within our condensed consolidated statements of operations.
PRF funds were available for use through June 30, 2021. We did not fully utilize the funds received; therefore, we have recorded a liability for the amount we expect to repay which totaled $58 million at June 30, 2021 and $60 million at December 31, 2020 (see the Provider Relief Fund Advance account in current liabilities within our condensed consolidated balance sheets). We intend to report on our use of the PRF funds to HHS during the three-month period ending September 30, 2021 and to return all unutilized funds by October 30, 2021. In summary, the total funds that we have received from the CARES Act PRF have been accounted for as follows as of June 30, 2021 (amounts in millions):
Amount
Funds utilized through June 30, 2021$46.6 
Estimated funds to be repaid to the government58.3 
Funds received by unconsolidated joint ventures1.9 
$106.8 

The CARES Act also provided for the temporary suspension of the automatic 2% reduction of Medicare claim reimbursements (sequestration) for the period May 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020. In December 2020, Congress passed additional COVID-19 relief legislation as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. This legislation extended the suspension of sequestration through March 31, 2021. In April 2021, Congress passed H.R. 1868, which among other items, provided for an additional extension of the temporary suspension of sequestration through December 31, 2021. We estimate that the suspension of sequestration will increase our 2021 net service revenue by approximately $36 million.
Additionally, the CARES Act provided for the deferral of the employer share of social security tax (6.2%), effective for payments due after the enactment date through December 31, 2020. Fifty percent of the deferred payroll taxes are due on December 31, 2021 with the remaining amounts due on December 31, 2022. During 2020, we deferred approximately $55.0 million of social security tax; approximately $28 million is reflected in each of payroll and employee benefits and other long-term obligations within our condensed consolidated balance sheets.
Our personal care segment did not receive funds under the CARES Act; however, it did receive funds totaling $1 million from the Mass Home Care ASAP COVID-19 Provider Sustainability Program, which were used during 2020 to cover costs related to COVID-19.