Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text of measure as introduced: CR S724-726)
Congressional Research Service
Official summary
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Jan 21, 2009
Medicare Quality and Payment Reform Act of 2009 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to: (1) review annually high volume readmission rates and resource use; (2) establish benchmarks for measuring them; and (3) make payment adjustments for subsection (d) hospitals that fail to meet such benchmarks.
(Generally, a subsection (d) hospital is an acute care hospital, particularly one that receives payments under Medicare's inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) when providing covered inpatient services to eligible beneficiaries.)
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a pilot program to provide episodic payments to hospitals and other organizing entities for items and services associated with hospitalization episodes of Medicare beneficiaries with respect to one or more conditions that have a high volume, high readmission rate, or high rate of post-acute care under the Medicare program.
No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Aug 14, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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