Sponsors (9)
Introduced July 10, 2025 by Vernon G. Buchanan · Last progress December 2, 2025
The bill preserves and studies hospital-at-home programs—maintaining patient access and provider operations while funding research—at the cost of small fiscal shifts, potential higher Medicare spending if at-home care expands, and remaining safety, data-quality, and reporting burdens.
Medicare beneficiaries can continue receiving eligible acute hospital-level care at home through Sept 30, 2030, preserving access to inpatient-equivalent services outside hospitals.
Hospitals, health systems, and home-based care teams can keep operating hospital-at-home programs under existing waiver authority, avoiding disruptive regulatory interruption and preserving jobs and operational continuity.
CMS/HHS will receive funding to study hospital-at-home safety, outcomes, costs, and equity—giving policymakers, hospitals, and beneficiaries evidence (due Sept 30, 2028) to inform payment, access, and equity improvements.
Taxpayers and Medicare trust funds may face higher program spending if hospital-at-home expands utilization or costs relative to in-hospital care.
Some Medicare beneficiaries could receive care at home that would have been safer or more appropriate in a hospital, creating potential safety and quality risks depending on oversight.
The $2.5 million study is funded by a corresponding $2.5 million reduction to the Medicare Improvement Fund, effectively shifting funds and potentially reducing support for other Medicare programs, payments, or services.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Extends the Medicare acute hospital care at home waiver flexibilities through September 30, 2030, giving hospitals more time to provide eligible inpatient-level care in patients’ homes under existing statutory authority. It also requires the HHS Secretary to study and report on program selection criteria, quality, outcomes, costs, equity, and service mixes by September 30, 2028, funds that study with $2.5 million for CMS, and offsets that amount by reducing a specified Medicare Improvement Fund line by $2.5 million.