Several Important Health Care Provisions in Omnibus Federal Funding Bill

The Senate passed a $1.5 trillion Omnibus spending package to fund the federal government for the current fiscal year, after Democrats and Republicans resolved disagreements to quickly send $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine.

Several anticipated healthcare features were cut from the draft. For example, $15 billion in health care COVID-19 relief funding was pulled out with reports that it will be run as a standalone to, among other things, continue and fund the federal government’s supply of coronavirus therapeutics.

The bill is also missing continued relief from the 2% Medicare sequestration payment cuts. This means that beginning April 1, 2002, and through June 30, 2022, there will be a 1% across-the-board reduction in Medicare payments. The full 2% cuts would begin July, 2022.

On a positive note, hospice several telehealth waivers will be extended for 5 months after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), allowing hospices to perform the face-to-face (F2F) recertification visit via telehealth; use audio-only; and allow patients to receive telehealth servings in their own homes and in non-rural parts of the country. The flexibility for hospices to deliver routine home care using telehealth and telephone technology would not be extended by the bill. Neither would certain telehealth CPT codes that have been used by palliative care providers during the pandemic be continued for that purpose.

A summary of the House’s Labor-Health and Human Services portion of the bill, where most of the health care provisions can be found, can be accessed HERE.

Additional summary and explanatory documents related to the House's bill can be found on the House Appropriation Committee’s press release page HERE. Full text of the Senate's bill was not available at the writing of this article.