Committee Marks Up “Hospital at Home,” Digital Health Reporting Legislation; Bills Passed Out of Committee Unanimously
WASHINGTON — Today, Congressman Vern Buchanan, Vice Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and Chair of the Health Subcommittee, announced that two crucial bipartisan pieces of health care legislation he introduced were marked up by the House Ways and Means Committee.
The Ways and Means Committee marked up Buchanan’s Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act (H.R. 4313), legislation to enable hospitals to extend successful “Hospital at Home” programs for an additional five years, as well as Buchanan’s Healthcare Efficiency Through Flexibility Act (H.R. 5347) to improve digital reporting across the health care sector. Both bills were passed out of committee unanimously.
“My commonsense, bipartisan bills will help strengthen our health care system by expanding access to care at home and cutting red tape for providers, and I’m proud that they were marked up and passed out of committee,” said Buchanan. “‘Hospital at Home’ services are especially crucial for the nearly 200,000 seniors in my district. My Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act will ensure that more than 200 hospitals across 34 states, including 23 in Florida, can continue participating in this program and provide quality care to those in need. We must ensure this life-changing model remains available for years to come.”
“Additionally, health care reporting measures must not place undue burden on Medicare providers or jeopardize value-based care,” continued Buchanan. “By expanding reporting options for Accountable Care Organizations, my Healthcare Efficiency Through Flexibility Act will reduce excess regulatory burden on ACOs and allow providers to focus on delivering high-quality, value-based care. As Chair of the Health Subcommittee, I’m focused on advancing solutions that improve care, lower costs and make life easier for patients and doctors alike.”
Buchanan’s Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act would extend the current “Hospital at Home” waiver program—first established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in November 2020 to provide hospitals with increased flexibility to care for certain patients from the comfort of their homes—through 2030, allowing hospitals to continue participating and providing quality care to patients. A recent report from CMS shows that allowing patients to be treated in a more familiar environment and routine accelerates recovery time, lowers the mortality rate and reduces the risk of hospital-acquired infections and falls.
“Where an individual receives health care services can be as important to that patient as the services themselves,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.). “So much of our health care delivery model draws seniors away from their homes and into a clinical or hospital setting that does not guarantee a higher quality of care or outcome. This bill gives hospitals in communities across this country the flexibility to treat seniors in the convenience of their own homes, providing better care and comfort for many seniors and helping to address the problem of overcrowding in hospitals. I commend Representative Buchanan for his leadership as the Vice Chair of the Ways and Means Committee and, in particular, how he has led the fight for America’s seniors as Chairman of the Health Subcommittee in pushing for this timely extension of the ‘Hospital at Home’ program.”
The Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act is cosponsored by Rep. Mike Carey (R-Ohio), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.), Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) and Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.). Find a list of supporting organizations here and all letters of support here.
Buchanan’s Healthcare Efficiency Through Flexibility Act allows for a wider variety of quality measure reporting methods for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) through 2029, including the currently in-place electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs). The bill also clarifies data completeness requirements to ease regulatory burdens for ACOs and creates a digital quality measure pilot program.
“The quickest way to destroy innovation in health care is to layer on the red tape and put paperwork between the patient and their provider,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.). “Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Buchanan has clearly identified that the current implementation of new electronic quality reporting requirements for Accountable Care Organizations is an undue bureaucratic burden. He is doing tremendous work to protect health care for our seniors as well as ensure providers are able to focus more of their time and attention on taking care of patients and less on administrative burdens. This solution will ensure a more seamless transition to the new system while protecting the promise of more coordinated, higher quality care provided by ACOs.”
The Healthcare Efficiency Through Flexibility Act is cosponsored by Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.). Find a list of supporting organizations here and all letters of support here.
In addition to being the Vice Chairman and most senior Republican on the powerful U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, Buchanan is also the Chairman of the Health Subcommittee, which has broad jurisdiction over traditional Medicare, the Medicare prescription drug benefit program and Medicare Advantage.
