Senate Bill Would Extend Independence at Home Demonstration
The Senate Finance Committee Chronic Care Working Group has introduced the CHRONIC Care Act of 2016, which could extend the Independence at Home (IAH) pilot program that delivers home-based health care for the chronically ill. The Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic Care Act will allow the IAH to continue for another two years, and raise the number of beneficiaries from 10,000 to 15,000. IAH provides in-home primary health care for specific Medicare beneficiaries, and was launched to reduce the number of needless visits to the ER and to lower readmission rates to hospitals, as well as lower the cost of Medicare. Last year, the program saved Meidcare over $25m, and has saved over $10m in this year alone.

A pilot program that incentivizes the delivery of home-based health care for chronically ill patients may be extended if newly introduced legislation passes.

The Senate Finance Committee Chronic Care Working Group introduced the Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act of 2016 (S. 3504) on Dec. 6. The bipartisan legislation, among other things, would extend the Independence at Home (IAH) demonstration for two additional years.

Specifically, the bill would allow IAH, which is set to expire in September 2017, to last until September 2019. The bill would also raise the maximum number of allowable beneficiaries to 15,000 from 10,000.

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IAH, which began in 2012, enables doctors and nurse practitioners to deliver in-home primary care for applicable Medicare beneficiaries. The demonstration is intended to reduce unnecessary visits to the emergency room, avoidable hospitalizations and readmissions, and to lower Medicare costs overall.