Hospitals, physicians and community health centers finally got certainty on their federal funding Friday when the Senate followed the House by passing long-delayed legislation to keep a large portion of the federal government funded through September.
The so-called "minibus" package of six appropriations bills allocates some $468 billion to federal agencies. The measure postpones an $8 billion reduction in Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments for a year, allocates $4.27 billion to federally qualified health centers through the end of the year and rolls back a significant portion of a Medicare physician pay cut that kicked in on Jan. 1.
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Several Republican senators raised procedural hurdles and forced an extra vote Friday. But they ultimately relented after a plea from Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine).
"Stop playing with fire here," said Collins, who emphasized that the Republican-controlled House approved the same package on Wednesday. "It would be irresponsible for us not to clear these bills and do the fundamental job that we have of funding government."
In addition to the healthcare provisions, the spending bill funds about half the federal government, including the Food and Drug Administration. If Congress had not completed this bill Friday, the parts of the federal government subject to this legislation would have shut down at midnight.
Ultimately, the Senate passed the appropriations bill 75 to 22 and sent it to President Joe Biden to sign ahead of the deadline.
Congress is supposed to pass annual appropriations before the end of every fiscal year on Sept. 30, but the fiscal 2024 measures were delayed four times in favor of temporary continuing resolutions.
Passage of the bills narrowly averts a partial government shutdown as well as delayed relief that hospitals and community health centers have warned they could ill-afford, especially while payment streams are disrupted by the Change Healthcare cyberattack.
"Because both sides cooperated today, we've taken a major step towards our goal of fully funding the government," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the chamber's floor ahead of the vote Friday. "Today's bipartisan agreement gives us momentum and space to finish the remaining appropriation bills by March 22. Of course, it's going to take both sides working together to keep that momentum alive."
Congress still has to pass that other package to keep the rest of the government running past March 22, including the Health and Human Services Department. That raft of measures is considered more controversial and is less certain to pass on time. It is not expected to include major health policy provisions.
