The long-term spending deal agreed to by Congress Friday morning raises caps on domestic and military spending by about $300 billion and pushes the federal debt limit to March 2019.
The news website Healthcare Dive is reporting that the plan also contains a number of important healthcare budget items. The deal still has to be approved in the appropriations process, so there is a way to go, but here are a few of the items agreed to early this morning.
- Elimination of the ACA’s Independent Payment Advisory Board created to make reductions in Medicare payments to providers if overall spending grew faster than a set rate.
- Delay to payment cuts for Disproportionate Share Hospitals until 2020.
- Repeal of the Medicare payment cap for therapy services.
- Closes the Medicare Part D “doughnut hole” a year early.
- More opioid funding.
- Extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
