Title: Expressing the sense of Congress that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should take action to ensure that home infusion therapy services are accessible to all Medicare beneficiaries.
Policy area: Health

Summary:
This concurrent resolution expresses the sense of Congress that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should issue regulations that require Medicare coverage of home infusion therapy services regardless of whether or not a skilled professional is present in the beneficiary's home on the day on which a home infusion drug physically enters the beneficiary's body.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 63 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 63

   Expressing the sense of Congress that the Centers for Medicare & 
   Medicaid Services should take action to ensure that home infusion 
     therapy services are accessible to all Medicare beneficiaries.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 18, 2019

  Mr. Engel submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
 referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to 
   the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of Congress that the Centers for Medicare & 
   Medicaid Services should take action to ensure that home infusion 
     therapy services are accessible to all Medicare beneficiaries.

Whereas home infusion therapy services allow patients with congestive heart 
        failure, immunologic diseases, cancer, and other conditions to remain 
        home, away from the risk of hospital-acquired infections, where patients 
        can resume their personal and professional activities;
Whereas home infusion therapy services are an extension of the health care 
        continuum and serve as a safe, convenient, cost-effective alternative 
        for patients to be administered infusion drugs when other settings are 
        unnecessary, impractical, or unavailable; when transport outside the 
        home is a burden to the patient or family; or when administration of 
        infusion drugs at home can improve quality of life;
Whereas the Government Accountability Office concluded in a 2010 report that 
        ``providing infusion therapy at home generally costs less than treatment 
        in other settings'';
Whereas the 21st Century Cures Act created a home infusion therapy services 
        benefit, beginning in 2021, under the Medicare program under title XVIII 
        of the Social Security Act to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries 
        continue to have access to home infusion therapy services;
Whereas the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 included a provision to provide for 
        temporary transitional payments for home infusion therapy services in 
        2019 and 2020, and the Congressional Budget Office projected that such 
        provision would save $910,000,000 from 2018 through 2022;
Whereas Congress intended for the Medicare program to provide payments for all 
        home infusion therapy services provided in accordance with a Medicare 
        beneficiary's plan of care, including pharmacy services (including 
        administrative, compounding, dispensing, distribution, clinical 
        monitoring, and care coordination services), nursing services, and other 
        services as required by the plan of care;
Whereas such payments for home infusion therapy services were intended to be 
        separate from, and in addition to, payments under the Medicare program 
        for durable medical equipment, which cover the costs of equipment and 
        supplies necessary to administer home infusion drugs but are not 
        adequate to cover the costs of professional services furnished to 
        administer such drugs;
Whereas Congress intended for the Medicare program to provide, with respect to a 
        Medicare beneficiary, payments for each infusion drug administration 
        calendar day of such beneficiary, that is, each day a home infusion drug 
        physically enters such beneficiary's body;
Whereas neither the 21st Century Cures Act nor the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 
        instructed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to make payments 
        only for days on which a skilled professional is physically present in a 
        Medicare beneficiary's home;
Whereas the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has implemented both 
        statutes in direct contradiction of the plain meaning of such statutes, 
        as well as Congress' explicit intent; and
Whereas clarification of Congress' intent regarding the implementation of the 
        21st Century Cures Act and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, ensuring 
        payments for each infusion drug administration calendar day, is 
        necessary to protect Medicare beneficiaries' access to home infusion 
        therapy services: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that the Centers for Medicare & 
Medicaid Services should promulgate regulations that define an infusion 
drug administration calendar day to mean, with respect to a Medicare 
beneficiary, any day on which a home infusion drug physically enters 
such beneficiary's body. Such regulations should not limit the 
definition to days on which a skilled professional is physically 
present in such a beneficiary's home.
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