Sponsors (8)
Official title: Establish programs to reduce rates of sepsis.
Introduced June 3, 2025 by Charles Ellis Schumer · Last progress June 3, 2025
This bill centralizes and funds CDC-led sepsis surveillance, data standardization, education, and scaling of evidence-based protocols to improve early detection and reduce deaths, while increasing federal spending and imposing reporting, compliance, and reputational pressures that may burden hospitals, staff, and some patient groups.
Hospitalized patients (especially those at risk for sepsis) will receive faster diagnosis and treatment because federal research, CDC guidance, and scaling of proven protocols aim to improve early recognition and clinical response, reducing preventable sepsis deaths.
Hospitals and health systems can lower costly readmissions and associated expenses by adopting evidence-based sepsis protocols and quality measures promoted through CDC activities and data linkage with CMS.
Healthcare workforce capacity for infectious disease and sepsis care could improve because the bill supports workforce recruitment/retention efforts, making sepsis prevention and treatment more accessible in communities.
Taxpayers and the federal budget face increased costs because the bill authorizes new spending (including $20M/year plus research and implementation funding), which could create budgetary pressure or require offsets.
Hospitals and healthcare workers will experience added administrative, reporting, compliance, and training burdens (from CDC–CMS data sharing, new quality measures, and state-protocol adoption), raising operational costs and staff workload.
Hospitals serving higher-risk or low-income populations could be unfairly penalized if new outcome measures do not adequately adjust for social and clinical risk factors, worsening disparities in assessments and resources.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Directs CDC to maintain a sepsis team for education, data and measure development, authorizes a voluntary hospital honor roll, and funds $20M/year for FY2026–2030.
Establishes a CDC sepsis team to lead a national effort on sepsis prevention, detection, data, and quality measurement, including improved pediatric surveillance, coordination of sepsis data standards, and an education campaign for hospital best practices. Requires an initial report and annual briefings to key congressional committees, allows a voluntary hospital “honor roll,” and authorizes $20 million per year for FY2026–2030 to carry out these activities.