New Bill Aims to Extend Acute Hospital Care at Home Waiver

Sens. Tom Carper (D-Delaware) and Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) introduced a bill called the Hospital Inpatient Services Act that allows for a two-year extension of the federal acute hospital-at-home waiver.

The Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver was introduced in November 2020 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The goal of the waiver was to allow treatment for common acute conditions to take place in home settings.

The program has been widely used during the pandemic, with 92 health systems, comprising 203 hospitals across 34 states, participating as of March 4.

The bill extends the waiver for two years after the COVID-19 public health emergency has ended and requires CMS to issue regulations that provide health and safety requirements for the approved hospital-at-home programs within one year of the bill being enacted into law.

The bill also requires the secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct research on the waiver that could lead to permanent adjustments to at-home services for Medicare patients.