A subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a fiscal year 2015 spending bill for HHS, as well as the Labor and Education departments. Here are six things to know about the legislation.
1. The Labor-HHS-Education Bill accounts for the largest share (32 percent) of non-defense discretionary spending. Therefore, increases in appropriations for these departments are closely tied to funding caps: In 2015, total non-defense discretionary budget authority can increase by only 0.1 percent.
2. The bill includes $156.77 billion in base discretionary budget authority, on par with fiscal year 2014 appropriations.
3. The legislation includes $672 million for the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program at CMS, more than twice the fiscal year 2014 funding level. According to the appropriations committee, $8.10 is recovered by the Treasury for every $1 spent on fraud and abuse prevention. Therefore, the increased funding is expected to generate more than $5.4 billion in savings.
4. The National Institutes of Health will receive nearly $30.46 billion in funding under the bill, an increase of $605.67 million, for biomedical research. According to the committee, this increase fully replaces the funding cuts the NIH experienced in 2013 because of sequestration.
5. The legislation also includes $1.49 billion for community health centers — nonprofit entities that provide care to medically underserved populations. Combined with mandatory funding provided under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, CHCs will receive $5.09 billion in fiscal year 2015, a year-over-year increase of $1.45 billion.
6. Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education funding will stay at the same level as 2014, at $265 million. The committee has rejected the administration's proposal to eliminate this program.
For more information, read the full bill summary here.
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