Congress passed – and President Biden signed into law – legislation to fund six federal agencies that were set to lose fiscal 2024 funding on March 8. This comes after Congress averted another shutdown earlier this month by passing a continuing resolution to keep the government open beyond March 1.
The legislation includes healthcare priorities, such as a partial reversal of the calendar year 2024 reimbursement cut that Medicare providers began incurring on Jan. 1. More specifically, the bill lowers the pay cut from 3.37 percent to 1.68 percent March 9 through the remainder of the year. The spending package also increases funding for community health centers, extends funding through Dec. 31 for primary medicine and dental workforce programs, as well as expands access to substance misuse treatment.
The bill does not include other healthcare priorities such as drug shortages, codifying price transparency rules for hospitals and health insurers or reauthorizing the expired pandemic and emergency preparedness law. Stakeholders hope these issues will be addressed in a second spending package to fund the remaining six federal agencies that Congress must pass by March 22.
