Spending debate tees up potential lame-duck health bill
From Roll Call — Mar 7th, 2024
Congress is staring down a December deadline as lawmakers once again punted major health policy decisions. While funding extensions for community health centers and other programs will carry through the end of the year, unresolved fights over pharmacy benefit managers, site-neutral payments, and pandemic response reauthorizations are set to return in a must-pass bill.
Veda Partners has been closely tracking these developments. Healthcare Policy Research Director Spencer Perlman noted that by draining Medicare and Medicaid Improvement Funds, lawmakers have left themselves with no easy offsets—making reforms on PBMs and site-neutral payments increasingly likely in December. Henrietta Treyz, managing partner and director of economic policy research, underscored that the upcoming lame-duck session could be shaped as much by political uncertainty—from the 2024 election rematch to shifting congressional leadership—as by policy disputes themselves.
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