Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act

This bill keeps Medicare’s “hospital care at home” option going. It lets hospitals treat some patients at home with hospital-level care when it’s safe, and keeps the special rules that allow Medicare to pay for it.

It also orders a new federal study and report by September 30, 2028, to see how home hospital care stacks up against regular hospital stays. The study will look at patient results (like readmissions, deaths, infections, and length of stay), staffing and team makeup, transfers back and forth between home and hospital, costs, how much care is in-person vs. virtual, patient and caregiver experience, and who gets this care, including income and race. It will compare people who start at home care from the ER versus from a hospital bed, and it must try to control for selection bias when comparing groups .

• Who is affected: Medicare patients and hospitals using hospital-at-home care.
• What changes: The program’s flexibilities are extended; a detailed federal study and public report are required .
• When: The report is due by September 30, 2028.