On February 26, 2015, the House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to vote on the following bills:

  • H.R. 1021, “Protecting the Integrity of Medicare Act of 2015” – a sweeping bill to promote Medicare program integrity and efficiency. Among many other things, the bill would: eliminate civil money penalties for inducements to physicians to limit services that are not medically necessary; create a Part D drug management program for beneficiaries at risk of prescription drug abuse; require MACs to establish improper payment outreach and education programs for providers; expand the Senior Medicare Patrol program; require the HHS Secretary to issue guidance on the application of the “Common Rule” protecting individuals involved in research; and require the Secretary to issue a report on how to establish a permanent physician-hospital gainsharing program.
  • H.R. 284, “Medicare DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Improvement Act of 2015” — which would require Medicare suppliers that bid under a durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) competitive bidding program to submit binding bids or risk forfeiture of a surety bond.
  • H.R. 876, “NOTICE Act” – which would require hospitals to provide certain notifications to individuals classified as being under observation status rather than admitted as inpatients.
  • H.R. 887, “Electronic Health Fairness Act of 2015” — which addresses the treatment of patient encounters in ambulatory surgical centers in determining meaningful electronic health record use.

** These bills were approved with amendments