The House of Representatives unanimously voted to pass a bill Monday that extends the Medicare hospital at home program for five years.
Hospital at home providers have been mired in uncertainty for years. Though Congress has repeatedly extended hospital at home flexibilities, it often only does so for a handful of months at a time.
The Acute Hospital Care at Home program is overseen by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and allows hospitals to transfer qualifying patients from the emergency department or an inpatient to their homes while still delivering inpatient-level care through a combination of telehealth, connected devices and home visits.
If the bill passes the Senate, it would be the longest extension the at-home care program has had since it began during the COVID-19 public health emergency in November 2020. Congress is also divorcing the extension of the program from the government funding deadline, which gives the program more stability.
Authority for the program lapsed during the recent 43-day government shutdown, and hospital at home providers faced a logistical nightmare trying to move patients back into hospitals in some states or shift them into other at-home care programs.
When Congress passed the continuing resolution to reopen the government, it included provisions to extend temporary flexibilities for telehealth and hospital at home through Jan. 30, 2026.
The five-year extension would be a sought-after respite for providers. It also could encourage more hospitals to join the program or expand their offerings. The bill comes as hospital at home provider Inbound Health shuttered its doors yesterday due to regulatory uncertainty, Home Health Care News reported.
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., introduced the bill in July and is the primary sponsor.
“At a time when our health care system is stretched thin, we need solutions like ‘Hospital at Home’ programs that help patients recover faster and get safe, high-quality care at a lower cost,” Buchanan said in a press release. “My Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act will ensure that hundreds of hospitals, including dozens in Florida, can keep caring for patients in their own homes. With hospitals under strain and chronic disease on the rise, today’s unanimous vote to extend this proven model reflects the kind of commonsense, bipartisan action Americans deserve. With nearly 200,000 seniors in my district, I’m grateful my colleagues and I can preserve a model that expands access and delivers real results for patients.”
The bill is supported by more than 100 organizations, including the American Hospital Association, Moving Health Home, Advocate Health, the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), Mass General Brigham, Intermountain Health and Yale New Haven Health.
“We are relieved that Hospital at Home is moving separately from government funding because we need a full five-year extension,” Krista Drobac, executive director of Moving Health Home, said in a statement sent to Fierce Healthcare. “We are thankful to the champions in the House and look forward to working with the Senate to enact the extension into law.”
Drobac said the Senate chances for the bill look favorable, and many senators have championed the legislation. What is less certain is a legislative vehicle that would be used to pass the bill.
“The Acute Hospital Care at Home program, in place for over half a decade, has become a critical part of the nation’s care delivery system,” Alexis Apple, director of federal policy at the ATA Action, the ATA’s advocacy arm, said in a statement. “More than 330 hospitals across 37 states now rely on AHCaH to safely care for appropriate patients in their homes. During the recent government shutdown, the AHCaH program was subjected to an unacceptable lapse, making the need for an extension of this length more necessary than ever. Now, it’s up to the Senate to pass this important legislation and send the bill to President Trump for his signature before the January 30, 2026, deadline.”