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Expanding Seniors Access to Mental Health Services Act
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to improve access to mental health services under the Medicare program.
Summary
This bill amends Medicare to improve access to mental health services provided by clinical social workers. It removes clinical social worker services from the skilled nursing facility prospective payment system, which allows these services to be paid separately rather than bundled into the facility's overall payment, making them more readily available to nursing home residents. The bill also expands the types of mental health services covered by Medicare to include health and behavior assessment and intervention services, not just diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses. The changes take effect on January 1, 2026.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Barrasso, John [R-WY] (R-WY)
2 cosponsors
Actions (2)
- May 15, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text: CR S2954) · senate
- May 15, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 15, 2025
Mr. Barrasso (for himself and Mr. Coons) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to improve access to mental health services under the Medicare program.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Expanding Seniors Access to Mental Health Services Act”.
SEC. 2. IMPROVED ACCESS TO MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES UNDER THE MEDICARE PROGRAM.
(a) Access to Clinical Social Worker Services Provided to Residents of Skilled Nursing Facilities.—
(1) Exclusion of clinical social worker services from the skilled nursing facility prospective payment system.—Section 1888(e)(2)(A)(iii) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395yy(e)(2)(A)(iii)) is amended by adding at the end the following new subclause:
“(VII) Clinical social worker services (as defined in section 1861(hh)(2)).”.
(2) Conforming amendment.—Section 1861(hh)(2) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(hh)(2)) is amended by striking “and other than services furnished to an inpatient of a skilled nursing facility which the facility is required to provide as a requirement for participation”.
(b) Access to the Complete Set of Clinical Social Worker Services.—Section 1861(hh)(2) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(hh)(2)), as amended by subsection (a)(2), is amended—
(1) by striking “for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses (other than services” and inserting “, including services for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses or services for health and behavior assessment and intervention (identified as of January 1, 2023, by HCPCS codes 96156, 96158- 96161, 96164-96168, and 96170-96171 (and any succeeding codes)) but not including services”; and
(2) by striking “inpatient of a hospital)” and inserting “inpatient of a hospital,”.
(c) Effective Date.—The amendments made by this section shall apply to items and services furnished on or after January 1, 2026. <all>
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