Last week, the House and Senate passed H.R. 1314, the “Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015,” and the president signed the measure into law Nov. 2. The bill sets discretionary appropriations caps for 2016 and 2017, providing some relief from the budget sequestration provisions of the Budget Control Act.
Specifically, the legislation will lift the caps on defense and non-defense discretionary spending by $25 billion in each category for 2016 and $15 billion in 2017, for a total of $80 billion in increased spending. The bill also will extend the federal debt limit until March 2017. In addition, H.R. 1314 provides Medicare Part B premium relief in 2016 for the approximately 30 percent of Medicare beneficiaries who were facing large increases.
The bill will offset increased spending, in part, by extending the 2 percent mandatory spending sequester—which includes Medicare providers—for an additional year.
This is the third time that Congress has extended the sequester cuts for Medicare providers and other mandatory spending. “We strongly urge members of Congress to stop using this tool to offset other spending increases,” AMA President Steven Stack, MD, said in a news release. The bill will generate additional savings by prohibiting provider-based, off-campus hospital outpatient departments that execute provider agreements after the date of enactment from being paid under the Outpatient Prospective Payment System.
As a result, the site-of-service payment differential that typically produces higher total Medicare payments for services provided by off-campus, hospital-owned physician practices will not be allowed in newly acquired practices.
[Courtesy AMA Advocacy Update, November 5, 2015]