Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act
The Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act would extend the Medicare Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCaH) waiver flexibilities through 2030 (instead of ending in 2025) and require a new, comprehensive study and report on these flexibilities. The AHCaH initiative allows hospitals to deliver certain acute, hospital-level services to patients at home under specific waivers. The bill also creates a plan for a subsequent evaluation due by September 30, 2028, comparing patient outcomes, costs, staffing, care processes, and equity factors between AHCaH and traditional inpatient care, and it requires the results to be submitted to Congress. The overall aim is to continue using home-based acute care while gathering detailed data to assess performance and inform future policy.
Key Points
- 1Extends the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver flexibilities through 2030 (currently set to expire in 2025).
- 2Requires an initial and a subsequent study; the new subsection (c) mandates a subsequent study and report by September 30, 2028.
- 3The 2028 study must analyze which patients are eligible for AHCaH, and compare quality of care, outcomes, costs, and service intensity between AHCaH and traditional inpatient care, including readmissions, mortality, length of stay, infections, and care team composition.
- 4The study also needs to examine transfers between hospital and home, post-acute care discharges, caregiver involvement, and socioeconomic and demographic factors (including race, income, housing, proximity to facilities, and dual eligibility).
- 5The bill requires controlling for selection bias when comparing AHCaH participants to non-participants to ensure reliable conclusions.