When the dust clears after next week’s presidential election, Congress will return to Washington with numerous unfinished matters on its agenda – including many with implications for health care organizations in general and the Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals and community safety-net hospitals in particular.
They include:
- Federal government funding, authorization for which expires on December 20.
- Medicare payments to physicians, which many in Congress want to increase if, as proposed, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reduces those payments for 2025.
- A potential temporary extension of the continued use of telehealth to prescribe Schedule 2 drugs such as Adderall.
- Payment adjustments for low-volume and Medicare-dependent hospitals.
- Renewal of authorization for the COVID-era Acute Hospital Care at Home program.
- Addressing the reduction of Medicare disproportionate share hospital payments (Medicare DSH) scheduled to take effect on January 1 – an issue of particular concern to community safety-net hospitals.
- Funding for community health centers, currently scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
- Proposals to strength price transparency requirements for pharmacy benefit managers, insurers, and hospitals.
- Whether Medicare payments for outpatient services should differ based on whether those services are provided in an off-campus hospital outpatient department or a physician’s office.
Learn more about these and other issues in the Commonwealth Fund preview of the upcoming lame-duck session in its article “Lawmakers Eye Lame-Duck Session for Unfinished Health Care Business.”
