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SOS: Sustaining Outpatient Services Act
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to allow payments under the Medicare program for certain items and services furnished by off- campus outpatient departments of a provider to be determined under the prospective payment system for hospital outpatient department services, and for other purposes.
Summary
The bill amends Medicare payment rules to allow certain items and services furnished by off-campus outpatient departments of hospitals to be paid under the hospital outpatient prospective payment system rather than the physician fee schedule, beginning in 2027. This change applies only to off-campus departments where the total physician fee schedule payments for a given medical specialty in the previous year were less than $2,000,000. The bill provides flexibility in how Medicare reimburses these smaller off-campus outpatient 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)
- Sen. Hoeven, John [R-ND] (R-ND)
1 cosponsor
- Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN] (D-MN)
Actions (2)
- Feb 25, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. · senate
- Feb 25, 2026 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
February 25, 2026
Mr. Hoeven (for himself 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 allow payments under the Medicare program for certain items and services furnished by off- campus outpatient departments of a provider to be determined under the prospective payment system for hospital outpatient department services, 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 “SOS: Sustaining Outpatient Services Act”.
SEC. 2. ALLOWING MEDICARE PAYMENTS FOR CERTAIN ITEMS AND SERVICES FURNISHED BY OFF-CAMPUS OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENTS OF A PROVIDER TO BE DETERMINED UNDER THE PROSPECTIVE PAYMENT SYSTEM FOR HOSPITAL OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENT SERVICES.
Section 1833(t)(1)(B) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395l(t)(1)(B)) is amended—
(1) in clause (iv), by striking “and” at the end;
(2) in clause (v)—
(A) by inserting before “does not include” the following: “subject to clause (vi),”; and
(B) by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new clause:
“(vi) includes, with respect to a year (beginning with 2027), any item or service—
“(I) that is furnished during such year by an off-campus outpatient department of a provider (as defined in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (21)); and
“(II) with respect to which the greatest total amount paid with respect to a physician specialty under the physician fee schedule under section 1848 for all such items or services furnished by physicians in such specialty during the previous year was less than $2,000,000.”. <all>
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