Better Wound Care at Home Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2356 To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to make technical amend- ments to the separate payment under the Medicare program for dispos- able negative pressure wound therapy devices. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 5, 2021 Mr. BUTTERFIELD (for himself and Mr. MULLIN) introduced the following bill; 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 sub- sequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to make technical amendments to the separate payment under the Medicare program for disposable negative pressure wound therapy devices. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Better Wound Care 4 at Home Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:52 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2356.IH H2356 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2356 IH SEC. 2. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS TO MEDICARE SEPA- 1 RATE PAYMENT FOR DISPOSABLE NEGATIVE 2 PRESSURE WOUND THERAPY DEVICES. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1834(s) of the Social Se- 4 curity Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(s)) is amended— 5 (1) in paragraph (1), by adding at the end the 6 following new sentence: ‘‘Effective as of January 1, 7 2022, such separate payment shall be a national 8 payment rate established each year for the applica- 9 ble disposable device itself, and not for the related 10 professional services or home visit to furnish the de- 11 vice, and shall be made under the prospective pay- 12 ment system established under section 1895, as an 13 add-on payment for the device in addition to other 14 payments available to a home health agency under 15 such section.’’; 16 (2) in paragraph (3), by adding at the end the 17 following new sentences: ‘‘In calculating the separate 18 payment amount for applicable disposable devices in 19 a given year, the Secretary shall assume no facility 20 level adjustments are applied and the wage adjust- 21 ment factor shall be 1.0, regardless of the wage ad- 22 justment factor that would otherwise apply under 23 section 1833(t). The separate payment for the appli- 24 cable disposable device shall be made under the pro- 25 spective payment system established under section 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:52 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2356.IH H2356 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2356 IH 1895, and nothing in this paragraph shall be con- 1 strued to authorize the separate payment for the ap- 2 plicable disposable device to be under a different 3 payment system.’’; and 4 (3) by adding at the end the following new 5 paragraph: 6 ‘‘(4) IMPLEMENTATION.—As part of submitting 7 claims eligible for or related to the separate add-on 8 payment established under this subsection, the Sec- 9 retary shall accept and process claims submitted 10 using the type of bill that is most commonly used by 11 home health agencies to bill services under a home 12 health plan of care, and the Secretary shall not re- 13 quire home health agencies to account for the time 14 spent applying the applicable disposable device sepa- 15 rately from the time spent treating other conditions 16 or to submit claims for payment under a payment 17 system other than the prospective payment system 18 established under section 1895. Notwithstanding any 19 other provision of law, the Secretary may implement 20 this subsection by program instruction or other- 21 wise.’’. 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:52 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2356.IH H2356 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS