Sponsors (9)
The bill extends and studies hospital-at-home to expand access and gather evidence, but does so while sharply reducing improvement fund obligations and extending regulatory waivers — trading near-term fiscal and administrative flexibility for risks to oversight, timely evidence, and program funding.
Medicare beneficiaries can continue receiving hospital-level acute care at home through Sept 30, 2030, increasing access to in-home treatment and allowing hospitals to maintain home-based care capacity.
Medicare, hospitals, caregivers, and policymakers will get a targeted study to compare quality and costs of Acute Hospital Care at Home, quantify caregiver and virtual-care roles, and analyze socioeconomic equity gaps to better inform future policy.
The Medicare Improvement Fund will retain $400.5 million available for spending in/after FY2027, preserving some funding for program improvements rather than eliminating the fund entirely.
Cutting the Medicare Improvement Fund obligation from $2.062 billion to $400.5 million will likely slow or reduce program improvements, decrease payments/support to hospitals, and could shift costs to beneficiaries or taxpayers.
Extending regulatory waivers for home acute care may reduce oversight and safeguards, potentially increasing patient safety risks and could raise Medicare spending per episode if at-home care is costlier or used more widely than inpatient care.
The $2.5 million appropriation funds analysis (not direct services), may produce delayed results (noted by 2028) and could be limited by selection bias or data quality, reducing the timeliness and reliability of guidance for policymakers.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Extends Medicare acute hospital-at-home waivers to Sept 30, 2030; mandates an HHS study with $2.5M; and reduces a Medicare Improvement Fund allocation for services after FY2027.
Extends Medicare waiver flexibilities that allow hospitals to provide acute inpatient-level care in patients’ homes from January 30, 2026 to September 30, 2030. Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to study and report by September 30, 2028 on outcomes and differences between inpatient hospital care and the Acute Hospital Care at Home model, and provides $2.5 million to CMS to carry out that study. The bill also reduces the statutory dollar amount available from the Medicare Improvement Fund for services furnished during and after fiscal year 2027 from about $2.062 billion to $400.5 million, lowering the total funding available from that fund for the specified period.
Introduced July 10, 2025 by Vernon G. Buchanan · Last progress December 2, 2025