A little-noted provision of the legislative package repealing Medicare's sustainable growth-rate formula for paying doctors extends a grant program to pay for in-home visitations for at-risk families with newborns.
The House bill includes $400 million for the visitation program in each of the next two years. That's less than the $500 million requested by the Obama administration.
“We're really pleased that it's extended for two years,” said Patricia Cole, director of government relations for Zero to Three, an advocacy group that focuses on young children. “That gives the states more stable funding to plan their program and assure families that when they take them in, they're going to be able to stay in the program.”
The Affordable Care Act included $1.5 billion for the grant program to pay for in-home visitations for at-risk families. The aim of HHS' Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program is to reduce infant mortality and improve health outcomes for young children through support and intervention.
In fiscal 2014, the program served about 115,500 parents and children through hundreds of programs around the country.
And while Republicans continue to call for repealing the landmark healthcare law, the SGR package shows that it won't be that simple. That legislation also includes $7.2 billion in renewed funding for community health centers that was originally part of the ACA.
Reuters recently documented that while Republican governors who are weighing presidential campaigns have boasted of their refusal to implement Obamacare, their states have received tens of millions of dollars in grants that were part of the ACA, including home-visitation funding.
Texas, whose former governor Rick Perry is planning a second presidential bid, has received nearly $150 million in ACA-funded disbursements, according to Reuters, with more than half of that coming from the home-visitation program.
Similarly, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's administration has received roughly $75 million in ACA-funded grants, with about two-thirds of that coming from the visitation program. Two other likely GOP contenders—Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal—have also accepted more than $40 million in funds allocated through the ACA.
But Cole points out that the home-visitation program has a proven state track record that goes back decades. “(The ACA) was just the vehicle, the same way that SGR was a vehicle to extend it,” she said. “It's really giving a bigger authorization to a time-tested approach that has a lot of bipartisan support.”
