Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP
Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare
HHS posted this Press Release on Thursday, March 9, 2023.
The Biden-Harris Administration today released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The budget details a blueprint to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out, lower costs for families, protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security, and reduce the deficit by ensuring the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share—all while ensuring no one making less than $400,000 per year pays more in taxes.
The HHS budget makes critical, targeted investments in the American people that will improve health and well-being and promote greater prosperity and economic growth for decades to come. Specifically, these investments will address urgent needs to lower drug costs, bolster public health preparedness, improve the health and well-being of children and seniors, make child care affordable, expand access to health care, increase the health care workforce, and advance research underlying medicine, public health, and social services. The proposed HHS budget includes $144.3 billion in discretionary funding and $1.7 trillion in mandatory funding for FY 2024. The proposed HHS budget also extends the solvency of Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund by at least 25 years without cutting benefits or provider payments.
Highlights of the budget include:
- Extend Medicare Solvency by at Least 25 Years and Lower Drug Costs
- Expand Access to Health Care
- Public Health Preparedness
- Transforming Behavioral Health Care
- Improve the Well-being of Children and Seniors *
- Advancing Scientific Knowledge to Improve Lives
- Expand the Health Workforce
*“As America’s older population increases, it is critical to promote the health, safety, and dignity of elders through long term care. The FY 2024 budget affords $150 billion over 10 years in improving and strengthening Medicaid home and community-based services to ensure more people who are aging and those with disabilities can receive care in their home or community. In addition, the FY 2024 budget includes resources to strengthen nursing home oversight, including $566 million for the discretionary CMS Survey and Certification Program, nearly a 40 percent increase above enacted funding, for nursing homes and other facilities’ health and safety inspection surveys. The budget also includes multiple enforcement provisions to protect seniors, such as identifying and penalizing nursing homes that commit fraud, endanger patient safety, or prescribe unnecessary drugs.”
There’s a lot of very important items on this budget! I strongly encourage you to review the entire Press Release. For more information on the President’s FY 2024 budget for HHS, please review HHS FY 2024 Budget in Brief. In the Brief link, you’ll find the CMS Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committees-FY 2024. This is a 326-page document – it’s massive just as the CMS “ask” is massive.
There’s also Remarks by HHS Secretary Becerra at the HHS FY 2024 Budget Press Conference, posted March 10, 2023 with the Press Conference being the day before.
BriggsNetNews 