Rural ACO Improvement Act of 2015

Bill: 114-s-1456
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Cantwell, Maria [D-WA]
Introduced: 2015-05-22
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Health care quality

Health facilities and institutions

Health personnel

Medicare

Rural conditions and development
Latest action: action_date: 2015-05-22
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Summaries:
action_date: 2015-05-22
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Rural ACO Improvement Act of 2015</b></p> <p>This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to establish additional requirements for assigning Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries to accountable care organizations (ACOs) under the Medicare shared savings program. The program enables ACOs to receive payments for savings stemming from care coordination and management.</p> <p>Specifically, the bill requires the basis for assignment to reflect beneficiaries' utilization of not only primary care services provided by ACO physicians, but also those provided by other ACO practitioners, and those furnished in federally qualified health centers or rural health clinics. Other ACO practitioners include physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified registered nurse anesthetists, certified nurse-midwives, clinical social workers, clinical psychologists, and registered dieticians or nutrition professionals.</p>

tv_txt: II 114th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1456 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 22, 2015 Ms. Cantwell (for herself, Mr. Thune , and Mrs. Murray ) 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 improve the way beneficiaries are assigned under the Medicare shared savings program by also basing such assignment on primary care services furnished by Federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and clinical nurse specialists.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Rural ACO Improvement Act of 2015 . 2. Improvements to the assignment of beneficiaries under the Medicare shared savings program Section 1899(c) of the Social Security Act ( 42 U.S.C. 1395jjj(c) ) is amended— (1) by striking utilization of primary and inserting “utilization of— (1) in the case of performance years beginning on or after April 1, 2012, primary ; (2) in paragraph (1), as added by paragraph (1) of this section, by striking the period at the end and inserting a semicolon; and (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraphs: (2) in the case of performance years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, primary care services provided under this title by an ACO professional described in subsection (h)(1)(B); and (3) in the case of performance years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, primary care services provided under this title by a Federally qualified health center or rural health clinic (as those terms are defined in section 1861(aa)), as determined by the Secretary. .