Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2026
Official title: A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to count a period of receipt of outpatient observation services in a hospital toward satisfying the 3-da… Show full official titleShow less
Official title: A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to count a period of receipt of outpatient observation services in a hospital toward satisfying the 3-day inpatient hospital requirement for coverage of skilled nursing facility services under Medicare.
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2026
This bill deems an individual receiving outpatient observation services in a hospital as an inpatient for purposes of satisfying the three-day inpatient hospital-stay requirement with respect to Medicare coverage of skilled nursing facility (SNF) services. (Generally, individuals must have been an inpatient at a hospital for at least three days in order to qualify for SNF services. An individual's time spent under observation at a hospital for purposes of determining whether the individual should be admitted does not count towards this requirement.)
- Introduced in Senate Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
- AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATION
- NATIONAL COMMITTEE TO PRESERVE SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE
- DIRECT SUPPLY, INC.
- CHAMBER HILL STRATEGIES
- MEDLINE
- AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATION
Bodies those filers lobbied
- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
- SENATE
- Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
- Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS)
- Justice, Dept of (DOJ)
- Labor, Dept of (DOL)
- Veterans Affairs, Dept of (VA)
- Commerce, Dept of (DOC)
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). S. 4641: Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2026. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-4641/
"S. 4641: Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2026." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-4641/.
S. 4641, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-4641/.
[S. 4641: Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2026](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-4641/)