Stalled health programs await go-ahead in Congress

WASHINGTON — With the clock ticking on the stopgap bill that funds the federal government through Thursday, Congress is steeling itself to consider another must-pass budget bill. And, once again, health care could be caught in the crosshairs.

During previous debates over government funding, it was the high-profile Children’s Health Insurance Program that went months without reauthorization and became a bargaining chip in January. That program has since been extended for six years.

But the future of other programs remains unsettled. Among them, funding for the nation’s 1,400 community health centers and a delay on capping Medicare coverage of physical and outpatient therapy.

The specific provisions behind these initiatives expired last fall. Advocates are pressing lawmakers to keep them operational by including language in the broader spending bill that must pass next week to prevent another government shutdown.

Some of the items in this legislative mix are often left to the last minute to catch a ride on another bill.

Renewing federal funding for community health centers is the biggest ticket item: The clinics cost $3.6 billion per year, and provide basic health care for about 27 million low-income people. Also at stake is the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, through which trained home visitors teach poorer, at-risk mothers healthy parenting strategies to new mothers who are deemed at-risk and have low incomes.

Another provision forestalls planned reductions put in place by the Affordable Care Act — in federal funds given to vulnerable hospitals that serve a high rate of low-income patients, known as Disproportionate Share Hospitals.