Sponsors (5)
This is not an official government website.
Copyright © 2026 PLEJ LC. All rights reserved.
The bill expands access to community-based, concurrent palliative care and around-the-clock support for seriously ill Medicare beneficiaries, improving symptom management and continuity of care, but raises program costs and imposes operational and coordination challenges—especially for rural providers, hospices, and smaller agencies.
Medicare Part A beneficiaries with serious illnesses will gain access to coordinated, community-based palliative care services for up to five years, improving symptom control and continuity of care.
Medicare beneficiaries and their caregivers will have 24/7 access (including via telehealth) to palliative support, reducing unmet needs—particularly for rural and underserved populations.
Beneficiaries will be able to receive palliative care alongside disease‑modifying or curative treatments, allowing co-management with specialists and primary care without forgoing therapeutic options.
Expanding paid palliative services could increase Medicare spending and fiscal pressure if savings elsewhere do not offset added utilization.
Provider certification requirements and a 24/7 access mandate may strain staffing and raise administrative costs for participating organizations, especially smaller home health agencies.
Travel and service-delivery challenges in remote areas could limit timely implementation and leave some rural beneficiaries with less effective access despite telehealth provisions.
Introduced June 3, 2025 by Jacklyn Sheryl Rosen · Last progress June 3, 2025
Requires the Medicare innovation center to create, run, and evaluate a five-year Community-Based Palliative Care Model for high‑risk Medicare Part A beneficiaries. The model must start within one year of enactment, allow many provider types, include multidisciplinary teams with hospice/palliative certification, offer 24/7 access (including telehealth) in any beneficiary “home,” and collect specific utilization and experience metrics. The law mandates testing of this model under the existing innovation-model selection process, removes prior-hospice-use exclusions, and directs evaluation of service use, hospice election and duration, and beneficiary/caregiver experience to assess effects on care coordination and Medicare utilization.