United States HR 3691: Protecting Air Ambulance Services for Americans Act of 2023

Bill Text

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118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 3691
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to revise payment for
air ambulance services under the Medicare program.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 25, 2023
Mr. ESTES (for himself and Ms. DELBENE) 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 subse-
quently 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 revise
payment for air ambulance services under the Medicare
program.
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 ‘‘Protecting Air Ambu-4
lance Services for Americans Act of 2023’’. 5
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SEC. 2. IMPROVEMENTS TO MEDICARE PAYMENT SYSTEM 1
FOR AIR AMBULANCE SERVICES. 2
Section 1834(l) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 3
1395m(l)) is amended by adding at the end the following 4
new paragraph: 5
‘‘(18) IMPROVEMENTS TO MEDICARE PAYMENT 6
SYSTEM FOR AIR AMBULANCE SERVICES.— 7
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may re-8
vise the fee schedule otherwise established 9
under this subsection for air ambulance services 10
based on data described in subparagraph (B) 11
and data collected under subparagraph (C). 12
‘‘(B) DATA DESCRIBED.—For purposes of 13
subparagraph (A), the data described in this 14
subparagraph is data collected pursuant to the 15
provisions of, and amendments made by, section 16
106 of division BB of the Consolidated Appro-17
priations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116–260). 18
‘‘(C) ADDITIONAL DATA COLLECTION.— 19
The Secretary shall require, once every 3 years, 20
providers of services and suppliers furnishing 21
air ambulance services to submit to the Sec-22
retary— 23
‘‘(i) data relating to the fixed and op-24
erating costs per air ambulance base at-25
tributable to furnishing air ambulance 26
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services to individuals enrolled under this 1
part and data relating to the utilization of 2
such services by such individuals; 3
‘‘(ii) data relating to the revenue ob-4
tained by such providers and suppliers 5
under this part attributable to the fur-6
nishing of such services; and 7
‘‘(iii) any other information deter-8
mined appropriate by the Secretary. 9
‘‘(D) CONSULTATION.—In the case that 10
the Secretary elects to revise the fee schedule 11
for air ambulance services under subparagraph 12
(A), the Secretary shall consider stakeholder 13
input in a process that is transparent and ap-14
propriately considers data described in subpara-15
graph (B) and data collected under subpara-16
graph (C).’’. 17
SEC. 3. GAO STUDY ON EMERGENCY AIR AMBULANCE 18
COSTS. 19
Not later than 1 year after the date on which data 20
begins to be collected pursuant to the provisions of, and 21
amendments made by, section 106 of division BB of the 22
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116– 23
260), the Comptroller General of the United States shall 24
submit to the Committee on Finance of the Senate and 25
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the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee 1
on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representa-2
tives, a report detailing— 3
(1) the average annual operating costs per air 4
ambulance base; 5
(2) the average cost per transport by air ambu-6
lance; 7
(3) the payor mix for air ambulance services; 8
(4) the adequacy of Medicare payments for 9
such services; 10
(5) geographic variations in the cost of fur-11
nishing such services; and 12
(6) recommendations on improving the fee 13
schedule under section 1834(l) of the Social Security 14
Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(l)) for air ambulance serv-15
ices. 16
Æ
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