A new piece of legislation, Expanding Care in the Home, was introduced by Representatives Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Adrian Smith (R-NE) with the support of the Moving Health Home coalition. This bill aims to improve access to various types of home care, from personal care and primary care to dialysis and diagnostic imaging. It also would beef up investments in the workforce. Specifically, the bill’s seven provisions would:

• Improve the feasibility for primary care doctors to deliver home-based care, bringing house calls back to Medicare beneficiaries.
• Create a personal care services benefit in Medicare to fill the gap for beneficiaries who are unable to afford to pay out of pocket, yet do not qualify for home care services by Medicaid.
• Bolster the accessibility and affordability of home dialysis for patients with kidney disease.
• Increase access to preventative screening by allowing beneficiaries to receive in-home lab testing.
• Fix outdated policies to better enable the delivery of advanced diagnostic imaging in the home.
• Expand access to home infusion services by addressing fragmentation and affordability.
• Build up the next generation of the home-based care workforce, including physicians, nurses, and emergency medical service providers.