What’s happening: The U.S. House passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, which will fund a portion of the federal government through the end of the fiscal year. The package includes a group of CHA-supported health care provisions important to hospitals.
What else to know: Congress has until March 22 to pass a second package to fund the rest of the federal government, including the Department of Health and Human Services.
The CHA-supported health extenders in the package include:
- Elimination of Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payment cuts for fiscal year 2024 (Sept. 30); after that date, cuts are further delayed through December 2024
- Extension of Medicare dependent hospital and low-volume hospital programs for rural hospitals through December 2024
- A reduction in the cuts to Medicare payments to physicians
- Changes to several Medicaid behavioral health programs
- Extension of, and increase in funding for, community health centers
- Extension of funding for several graduate medical education programs
Of note, these programs are not funded by CHA-opposed cuts to Medicare site-neutral payments. The package has bipartisan support and is expected to pass the U.S. Senate and be signed by President Biden on March 8.
CHA will continue to educate the California congressional delegation about hospitals’ key priorities, including protecting the 340B Drug Pricing Program and preventing the further expansion of Medicare site-neutral payments. CHA will provide updates on the federal budget negotiations via CHA News and issue federal alerts as needed.
