Sustaining Excellence in Medicaid Act of 2019
Latest action. Became public lawWhat a bill becomes when enacted, numbered by Congress and order of enactment: Public Law 119-4 is the 4th law of the 119th Congress.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) No: 116-39.
Sustaining Excellence in Medicaid Act of 2019
This bill extends several health care programs and requirements and revises certain Medicare drug payment methodologies.
(Sec. 2) The bill temporarily extends the Medicaid demonstration program for certified community behavioral health clinics.
(Sec. 3) The bill also temporarily extends the applicability of Medicaid eligibility criteria that protect against spousal impoverishment for recipients of home- and community-based services.
(Sec. 4) The bill increases appropriations for FY2019 for the Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration Program. (Under this program, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) may award grants to state Medicaid programs to assist states in increasing the use of home and community care for long-term care and decreasing the use of institutional care.)
(Sec. 5) Additionally, the bill extends the Family-to-Family Health Information Centers Program, which is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration. The program awards grants to family-run organizations to support the provision of information and peer support to families of children with special health care needs.
(Sec. 6) Finally, the bill provides statutory authority for a Medicare payment methodology that applies an add-on payment of up to 3% for new drugs or biologics (furnished on or after January 1, 2019) when the average sales price is unavailable and payment is instead based on the wholesale acquisition cost (WAC). (Effective January 1, 2019, the CMS reduced the WAC add-on payment in such situations from 6% to 3%.)
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Public Law" stage on August 6, 2019. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
This bill has been enacted. It is law.
The record's latest action, on August 6, 2019: Became Public Law No: 116-39.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Debbie Dingell (D-MI) introduced it on June 13, 2019, and 9 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 4 Democrats, 5 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HousePassed
- SenatePassed
- PresidentSigned into law