Congress ended their 117th Session in December by passing a massive omnibus spending bill to fund the federal government in FY 2023. The over 1,500-page bill also included several important health care policy provisions. After failing to pass any appropriations bill before the FY 2023 started in September the federal government had been funded at 2022 levels prior to passage of the omnibus bill. Starting in January 2023 government agencies will be funded at new levels as directed by the omnibus bill. Highlights of the new FY 2023 funding include:
Veterans Administration Medical and Prosthetic Research received $916 million; a $34 million increase or 3.9 percent over the FY 2022 enacted level.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) received $47.5 billion, which is a $2.5 billion increase or 5.6 percent over the FY 2022 enacted program level, including no less than a 3.8 percent increase for every institute and center.
Administration for Community Living (ACL); the bill funds ACL at $2.5 billion, an increase of $220 million above the fiscal year 2022 enacted level.
As mentioned, the omnibus included a number of health policy provisions which include:
The creation of 200 new Medicare-supported graduate medical education (GME) slots in FY 2026. 100 of these slots specifically allocated to psychiatry and psychiatry subspecialties, with no restrictions on the remaining positions.
Provisions from the NOPAIN Act, which improves access to FDA-approved non-opioid therapies for outpatient surgical procedures. Provides a separate Medicare payment, from 2025 through 2027, for non-opioid treatments that are currently packaged into the payment for surgeries under Medicare’s Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS)
Reduce the physician fee schedule cut from 4.5% to 2% for 2023 and around 3% for 2024.
Extends Medicare telehealth provisions put in place during the COVID-19 public health emergency for another two years.