This bill extends the federal government's "Hospital Care at Home" program, which allows Medicare patients to receive acute hospital-level care in their own homes instead of in traditional hospital settings. The legislation extends the program's authorization from 2024 through 2029, giving hospitals and Medicare an additional five years to operate under current waiver flexibilities that streamline how this care can be delivered. The bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct and report on two studies, one by September 2024 and another by September 2028, to evaluate the program's quality, costs, outcomes, and service intensity, with the second study specifically comparing patients who enter the program directly from emergency departments versus those transitioning from regular hospital stays. This measure affects Medicare beneficiaries, hospitals participating in the program, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the initiative. The bill contains no new federal funding requirements but aims to gather evidence on whether home-based acute hospital care is a safe and effective alternative to traditional inpatient hospital treatment.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.