President’s FY 2016 Budget Released

On February 2, 2015, President Obama released his Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Budget. The fiscal blueprint for the budget year that begins Oct. 1, 2015 proposes spending $4 trillion and projects revenues of $3.53 trillion, leaving a deficit of $474 billion.

To further align incentives and improve care coordination, the budget includes a proposal to accelerate physician participation in high-quality and efficient health care delivery systems by repealing the SGR formula and reforming Medicare physician payments in a manner consistent with the reforms included in recent bipartisan, bicameral legislation.

The budget also includes an increase of more than $550 million above 2015 enacted levels across the federal government to prevent, detect and control illness and death related to infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The budget would extend funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program, which ends in 2015, through 2019, ensuring continued, comprehensive, affordable coverage for these children. Similar to last year's budget, to further moderate Medicare cost growth, this proposal would strengthen the IPAB [Savings of $20.88 B/10 years], which ASPS opposes.