Better Wound Care at Home Act

Better Wound Care at Home Act

This bill modifies the Medicare payment methodology for disposable negative pressure wound therapy devices. In particular, the bill specifies that payment must be a national payment rate for the device itself and not for related professional services or visits, and must be made as an add-on payment for the device under the prospective payment system for home health services.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2356 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2356

   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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    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 
subsequently 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 Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Better Wound Care at Home Act''.

SEC. 2. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS TO MEDICARE SEPARATE PAYMENT FOR 
              DISPOSABLE NEGATIVE PRESSURE WOUND THERAPY DEVICES.

    (a) In General.--Section 1834(s) of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 1395m(s)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1), by adding at the end the following 
        new sentence: ``Effective as of January 1, 2022, such separate 
        payment shall be a national payment rate established each year 
        for the applicable disposable device itself, and not for the 
        related professional services or home visit to furnish the 
        device, and shall be made under the prospective payment system 
        established under section 1895, as an add-on payment for the 
        device in addition to other payments available to a home health 
        agency under such section.'';
            (2) in paragraph (3), by adding at the end the following 
        new sentences: ``In calculating the separate payment amount for 
        applicable disposable devices in a given year, the Secretary 
        shall assume no facility level adjustments are applied and the 
        wage adjustment factor shall be 1.0, regardless of the wage 
        adjustment factor that would otherwise apply under section 
        1833(t). The separate payment for the applicable disposable 
        device shall be made under the prospective payment system 
        established under section 1895, and nothing in this paragraph 
        shall be construed to authorize the separate payment for the 
        applicable disposable device to be under a different payment 
        system.''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(4) Implementation.--As part of submitting claims 
        eligible for or related to the separate add-on payment 
        established under this subsection, the Secretary shall accept 
        and process claims submitted using the type of bill that is 
        most commonly used by home health agencies to bill services 
        under a home health plan of care, and the Secretary shall not 
        require home health agencies to account for the time spent 
        applying the applicable disposable device separately from the 
        time spent treating other conditions or to submit claims for 
        payment under a payment system other than the prospective 
        payment system established under section 1895. Notwithstanding 
        any other provision of law, the Secretary may implement this 
        subsection by program instruction or otherwise.''.
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