Diagnostic Accuracy in Sepsis Act of 2025
The Diagnostic Accuracy in Sepsis Act of 2025 would amend the Medicare program (Title XVIII of the Social Security Act) to treat blood culture contamination as a hospital-acquired condition (HAC). Starting with discharges in fiscal year 2026 and thereafter, the bill adds “blood culture contamination” to the criteria used to determine whether a hospital is an applicable hospital for Medicare payment rules related to HACs. It also requires the Secretary to establish a measure for blood culture contamination for subsection (d) hospitals, with a standard that the contamination rate should not exceed 1 percent. In short, the bill creates a new, federally enforced quality measure aimed at reducing contaminated blood culture results and ties hospitals’ payment considerations to meeting that target.
Key Points
- 1The bill introduces blood culture contamination as a hospital-acquired condition under Medicare, beginning with discharges in FY 2026 or later.
- 2It amends Section 1886(p) of the Social Security Act to insert a new subparagraph defining blood culture contamination as an HAC for purposes of determining whether a hospital is an applicable hospital.
- 3A new measure is established requiring that the rate of blood culture contamination not exceed 1 percent for hospitals subject to subsection (d) payment rules.
- 4The designation of the new measure is to be used by the Secretary when determining applicable hospitals under the HAC framework.
- 5The bill’s short title is the “Diagnostic Accuracy in Sepsis Act of 2025.”