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Sustainable Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Services in the Home Act
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to permanently extend certain in-home cardiopulmonary rehabilitation flexibilities established in response to COVID-19, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill permanently extends telehealth flexibilities for cardiac rehabilitation, intensive cardiac rehabilitation, and pulmonary rehabilitation services that were established during COVID-19. The bill allows these services to be furnished in patients' homes via video conferencing and permits patients' homes to be designated as provider-based locations of hospital outpatient departments. Beginning January 1, 2026, the bill removes geographic requirements for telehealth provision of these rehabilitation services under Medicare, allowing services to be delivered regardless of originating location. The Secretary of Health and Human Services must establish standards within 30 days for designating homes as provider-based locations and for including these programs in Medicare telehealth services.
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)
5 cosponsors
Actions (2)
- Jan 24, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. · senate
- Jan 24, 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
January 24, 2025
Mrs. Blackburn (for herself and Ms. Klobuchar) 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 permanently extend certain in-home cardiopulmonary rehabilitation flexibilities established in response to COVID-19, and for other purposes.
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 “Sustainable Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Services in the Home Act”.
SEC. 2. CODIFYING VIRTUAL CARDIOPULMONARY REHABILITATION FLEXIBILITIES ESTABLISHED IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19.
(a) In General.—Section 1861(eee)(2) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(eee)(2)) is amended—
(1) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by inserting “, including in the home of an individual when furnished as a telehealth service through audio-visual real-time communications technology, or when such home is designated as a provider-based location of a hospital outpatient department” after “outpatient basis”; and
(2) in subparagraph (B), by inserting “, including through the virtual presence of such physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or clinical nurse specialist, through audio-visual real-time communications technology” after “under the program”.
(b) Expanding Originating Sites.—Section 1834(m) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(m)) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking “and (9)” and all that follows through “(as defined in paragraph (4)(E))” and inserting “, (9), and (10), the Secretary shall pay for telehealth services that are furnished via a telecommunications system by a physician (as defined in section 1861(r)) or a practitioner (as defined in paragraph (4)(E)), or by a hospital (as defined in section 1861(e))”;
(2) in paragraph (2)(A), by striking “or practitioner” each place that it appears and inserting “, practitioner, or hospital”;
(3) in paragraph (4)(A), by striking “or practitioner” and inserting “, practitioner, or hospital”;
(4) in paragraph (4)(C)—
(A) in clause (i), by striking “and (7)” and inserting “(7), and (10)”; and
(B) in clause (ii)(X), by striking “paragraph
(7)” and inserting “paragraphs (7) and (10)”;
(5) in paragraph (4)(F)(i), by striking “paragraph (8)” and inserting “paragraphs (8) and (10)”; and
(6) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
“(10) Treatment of cardiac rehabilitation program, intensive cardiac rehabilitation program, and pulmonary rehabilitation program visits furnished through telehealth.—In the case of items and services furnished on or after January 1, 2026, the geographic requirements described in paragraph
(4)(C)(i) shall not apply with respect to telehealth services for cardiac rehabilitation programs and intensive cardiac rehabilitation programs (as such terms are defined in section 1861(eee)) and pulmonary rehabilitation programs (as defined in section 1861(fff)) at an originating site described in subclause (V) or (X) of paragraph (4)(C)(ii).”.
(c) Authority To Establish Standards and Allow for Certain Programs To Utilize Telehealth Services.—
(1) In general.—Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall—
(A) establish standards for the designation of the home of an individual with status as a provider-based organization of a hospital consistent with waivers issued through the Hospital Without Walls program for cardiac rehabilitation, pulmonary rehabilitation, and intensive cardiac rehabilitation; and
(B) include items and services furnished under a cardiac rehabilitation program or under an intensive cardiac rehabilitation program (as such terms are defined in section 1861(eee) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(eee)), or under a pulmonary rehabilitation program (as defined in section 1861(fff) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(fff)) among telehealth services to be specified under section 1834(m)(4)(F) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(m)(4)(F)).
(2) Effective date.—The standards established under paragraph (1) shall apply to items and services furnished on or after January 1, 2026.
(d) Implementation.—Notwithstanding any other provision of the law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services may implement the provisions of, and the amendments made by, this section by program instruction or otherwise.
(e) Effective Date.—The amendments made by subsections (a) and (b) shall apply to items and services furnished on or after January 1, 2026. <all>
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