[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1948 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1948

 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permit high-deductible 
  health plans to provide chronic disease prevention services to plan 
          enrollees prior to satisfying their plan deductible.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 24, 2019

 Mr. Thune (for himself and Mr. Carper) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permit high-deductible 
  health plans to provide chronic disease prevention services to plan 
          enrollees prior to satisfying their plan deductible.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Chronic Disease 
Management Act of 2019''.
    (b) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) A small number of chronic diseases account for the 
        majority of health care spending in the United States.
            (2) The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health of the 
        Department of Health and Human Services used a deliberative 
        process involving the Multiple Chronic Conditions working group 
        subject matter experts in clinical medicine, epidemiology, and 
        public health to develop a list of 20 chronic conditions that 
        are prevalent and potentially amenable to public health or 
        clinical interventions, or a combination of both.
            (3) Limited and targeted interventions for many chronic 
        diseases prevent the need for additional, more costly therapies 
        associated with untreated or unmanaged chronic diseases that 
        lead to adverse effects on quality of life for patients.
            (4) These types of chronic care preventive services should 
        be encouraged to maximize the effectiveness and positive 
        outcomes of the care provided under high-deductible health 
        plans.
            (5) Section 223(c)(2)(C) of the Internal Revenue Code of 
        1986 explicitly grants the Secretary of the Treasury 
        flexibility in defining the scope of preventive care for 
        purposes of the preventive care safe harbor. As of the date of 
        introduction of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury has 
        refrained from exercising existing authority under such section 
        to expand the preventive care safe harbor to include chronic 
        disease prevention.
            (6) In the absence of an expansion of the preventive care 
        safe harbor by the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chronic 
        Disease Management Act of 2019 would expressly permit high-
        deductible health plans to provide chronic disease prevention 
        and treatment, subject to certain limitations, prior to a plan 
        enrollee having met their plan deductible.
            (7) Allowing health savings account-eligible high-
        deductible health plans to cover chronic disease prevention and 
        treatment on a pre-deductible basis promotes the concept of 
        Value-Based Insurance Design, which is an effective tool to 
        improve the quality and reduce the cost of care for Americans 
        with chronic diseases, with improved outcomes via increased 
        medication adherence, reduced complications, and decreased 
        emergency department visits.

SEC. 2. CHRONIC DISEASE PREVENTION.

    (a) In General.--Section 223(c)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986 is amended by redesignating subparagraph (D) as subparagraph (E) 
and by inserting after subparagraph (C) the following new subparagraph:
                    ``(D) Safe harbor for absence of deductible for 
                care related to chronic conditions.--A plan shall not 
                fail to be treated as a high-deductible health plan by 
                reason of failing to have a deductible for care related 
                to the treatment of any chronic condition, as 
                determined by the Assistant Secretary for Health of the 
                Department of Health and Human Services.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to coverage for months beginning after the date of the enactment 
of this Act.
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