<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><BillSummaries>
<item congress="114" measure-type="hr" measure-number="5273" measure-id="id114hr5273" originChamber="HOUSE" orig-publish-date="2016-05-18" update-date="2016-06-16">
<title>Helping Hospitals Improve Patient Care Act of 2016</title>
<summary summary-id="id114hr5273v36" currentChamber="HOUSE" update-date="2016-06-16">
<action-date>2016-06-07</action-date>
<action-desc>Passed House amended</action-desc>
<summary-text><![CDATA[<p><strong>Helping Hospitals Improve Patient Care Act of 2016</strong></p> <p>TITLE I--PROVISIONS RELATING TO MEDICARE PART A</p> <p>(Sec. 101) The bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS)&nbsp;to develop, with respect to claims for hospital services,&nbsp;codes under the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) for similar inpatient and outpatient hospital services.</p> <p>(Sec. 102) The bill establishes processes for adjusting a hospital's Medicare payments based on the hospital's overall proportion of inpatients who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.</p> <p>(Sec. 103) The bill extends for five years the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program, through which Medicare pays certain rural hospitals on the basis of reasonable incurred costs rather than under the standard prospective payment system.</p> <p>(Sec. 104) With respect to&nbsp;long-term care hospitals, the bill lifts&nbsp;a moratorium on bed increases. The bill reduces rates for high-cost outlier payments, which are additional Medicare payments made in extraordinarily high-cost cases.</p> <p>(Sec. 105) The bill reduces the amount by which hospital payment rates for inpatient services increase in FY2018.</p> <p>TITLE II--PROVISIONS RELATING TO MEDICARE PART B</p> <p>(Sec. 201) The bill excludes certain off-campus outpatient departments&nbsp;(OPDs) from&nbsp;specified rules&nbsp;that mandate&nbsp;lower Medicare payments. Specifically, the exclusion applies to: (1)&nbsp;cancer hospitals in off-campus OPDs, and (2) mid-build OPDs.&nbsp;A "mid-build" OPD is one for which the provider had, before a certain date, a binding written agreement with an outside party for construction.</p> <p>(Sec. 203) With respect to payment reductions for failing to meet requirements for the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs), the bill exempts eligible professionals who are based in ambulatory surgical centers.</p> <p>TITLE III--OTHER MEDICARE PROVISIONS</p> <p>(Sec. 301) Until plan year 2019, CMS may not terminate an MA plan solely because the plan failed to achieve a specified minimum quality rating.</p> <p>(Sec. 302) CMS&nbsp;must annually report on Medicare enrollment data, as specified by the bill.</p> <p>(Sec. 303) CMS&nbsp;shall: (1) request information and recommendations from stakeholders on information included in the&nbsp;Welcome to Medicare package, and (2)&nbsp;update the information included in the&nbsp;package accordingly.</p>]]></summary-text>
</summary>
<summary summary-id="id114hr5273v00" currentChamber="HOUSE" update-date="2016-06-07">
<action-date>2016-05-18</action-date>
<action-desc>Introduced in House</action-desc>
<summary-text><![CDATA[<p><strong>Helping Hospitals Improve Patient Care Act of 2016</strong></p> <p>The bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to alter provisions related to hospital services, medical services, and Medicare Advantage (MA).</p> <p>With respect to claims for hospital services, the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS) shall develop codes under the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) for similar inpatient and outpatient hospital services.</p> <p>The bill establishes processes for adjusting a hospital's Medicare payments based on the hospital's overall proportion of inpatients who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.</p> <p>The bill extends for five years the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program, through which Medicare pays certain rural hospitals on the basis of reasonable incurred costs rather than under the standard prospective payment system.</p> <p>With respect to&nbsp;long-term care hospitals, the bill lifts&nbsp;a moratorium on bed increases. The bill reduces rates for high-cost outlier payments, which are additional Medicare payments made in extraordinarily high-cost cases.</p> <p>The bill reduces the amount by which hospital payment rates for inpatient services increase in FY2018.</p> <p>The bill excludes certain off-campus outpatient departments&nbsp;from&nbsp;specified rules&nbsp;that mandate&nbsp;lower Medicare payments.&nbsp;</p> <p>With respect to payment reductions for failing to meet requirements for the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR), the bill exempts eligible professionals who are based in ambulatory surgical centers.</p> <p>Until plan year 2019, CMS may not terminate an MA plan solely because the plan failed to achieve a specified minimum quality rating.</p>]]></summary-text>
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<dc:language>EN</dc:language>
<dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.</dc:rights>
<dc:contributor>Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress</dc:contributor>
<dc:description>This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.</dc:description>
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