HR-3417 : Still Just a Bill

Beneficiary Education Tools, Telehealth, and Extenders Reauthorization Act of 2019 or the BETTER Act of 2019

This bill extends funding for, and makes a series of changes to, Medicare enrollment, payment, and prescription drug programs.

Among other things, the bill

• extends funding through FY2022 for state health insurance programs, area agencies on aging, aging and disability resource centers, technical assistance related to outreach and enrollment, and certain quality-measurement activities;
• provides statutory authority for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services transition program under the Medicare prescription drug benefit for limited-income, newly eligible individuals (i.e., individuals who are eligible for subsidies and have not yet enrolled in, or whose coverage has not yet taken effect under, a Medicare or Medicare Advantage prescription drug plan);
• revises payment rules for graduate medical education costs with respect to a hospital that establishes a new medical residency training program; and
• authorizes additional quality measures for the skilled nursing facility (SNF) value-based purchasing program, which provides incentive payments to SNFs based on their quality of care.