The Fiscal Cliff, a Lose-Lose Proposition for NJ's Healthcare Facilities
No compromise by January 1 is going to cost NJ hospitals big, reaching an agreement could cost them even more.
New Jersey healthcare facilities face more than $1.3 billion in cuts to Medicare payments over the next decade, if President Barack Obama and Congress can't pull the country back from the fiscal cliff by January 1. Paradoxically, the cuts could be even deeper if the president and Congress do hammer out a compromise. That's because both parties have proposed slicing Medicare even closer to the bone as part of their negotiations. Under a 2011 law, Medicare payments would be cut by 2 percent across the board under automatic reductions known as “sequestration,” which would reduce most discretionary spending. Other health programs targeting low-income residents would see even deeper cuts. The NJ Hospital Association estimates that sequestration…
