On Thursday, April 23rd, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an interim Coronavirus aid package that provides an additional $310 billion to the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) and an additional $10 billion to the Emergency Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. Today, Friday, April 24th, President Trump signed this legislation into law. The PPP will still be administered through banks and credit unions, and the EIDL application process will still be administered through the federal Small Business Administration (SBA). Of the $310 billion for the PPP loans, $60 billion is allocated specifically for smaller banks.

Importantly, if you have already applied for a PPP loan, you generally do not need to reapply, but this is dependent on whether your specific lender was maintaining your application in a queue during the PPP’s funding lapse. It is important that you check with your lender on the issue to confirm that do not need to reapply.

If you were in the process of applying for an EIDL and have an application number that begins with the number 3, then you do not need to reapply for a loan. The SBA reports it is continuing to process applications that were in the pipeline when funding ran out and will reopen its application portal and accept new applications once it receives the new appropriations. However, small businesses seeking an EIDL that have an application number that begins with the number 2 should reapply once the application portal reopens. They will not lose their place in line because the SBA can match up the new application with the date/time stamp of the original application submitted.

While this new stimulus package does not include changes to the period in which small business owners have to seek forgiveness for these SBA loans, the AAO will continue to advocate for such a change in future stimulus legislation. We will also continue to lobby the Department of the Treasury to consider allowing small business dental practices to choose the 8-week period for which they seek forgiveness for the loans and rehire back staff before December 31, 2020, instead of requiring them to rehire staff by June 30, 2020.

For more information to help you strategize what is best for you and your practice, the AAO has provided resources from Cain Watters & Associates. To locate banks who are accepting new PPP loan applications, AAO endorsed student loan refinancing partner, Sofi built a marketplace for small businesses. This resource from Lantern makes it easy to shop across multiple lenders and compare financial solutions, including those that are part of the SBA Paycheck Protection Loan Program (PPP).

We appreciate all AAO members who sent messages to members of Congress this week to ask for additional funding and flexibility for SBA loans. Thank you, as always, for your membership in the American Association of Orthodontists.