White House releases Sequestration Report
On Friday afternoon the White House released a mandated report on the process and application of Sequestration. Mandated under the Budget Control Act of 2011, Sequestration is process whereby certain discretionary and mandatory government accounts must operate under a specified budget cap. Total government outlays under Sequestration will be reduced by $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. Starting in 2013, Medicare will reduce its total estimated budgetary outlay by 2%. Based on a projected operating budget of $554.3 billion for calendar year 2013, $11.085 billion will be cut from the program. While full details on administration of the cuts were not detailed in the report, the report did stipulate that approximately $5.8 billion of the cut would come from the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund. In addition to the funds cut from the Medicare program, the National Institute of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Health Resources and Services Administration would see programmatic cuts. Various congressional proposals have sought to modify Sequestration before it takes effect in January 2013. NRHA continues to advocate for all rural facilities and will continue to push for a solution that would protect rural providers from these catastrophic cuts. For more information on the report, click here and here. For a full copy of the report, click here.