Referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
The Medicare Patient Choice Act would expand Medicare beneficiaries' ability to directly choose their own healthcare providers by adding physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and chiropractors to the list of providers that Medicare patients can select without needing a referral from a physician. Currently, Medicare rules typically require patients to receive a physician's referral before seeing these types of specialists, and this bill would remove that requirement, giving patients more control over their therapeutic care decisions. The legislation amends Medicare law to treat these therapy providers similarly to how the program already treats physicians and other practitioners in terms of patient choice and eligibility. The bill does not appear to include new federal funding or establish specific implementation timelines beyond the standard legislative process. This change would primarily affect the roughly 66 million Medicare beneficiaries who would gain greater flexibility in accessing rehabilitation and audiology services.
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