BETTER Act of 2019
Latest action. Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 574.
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.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Reported to House, Part I" stage on December 24, 2020. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on December 24, 2020: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 574.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 116th Congress (2019-20), 344 of the 14,345 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
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?
RICHARD NEAL (D-MA) introduced it on June 21, 2019, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Republican.
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.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on June 21, 2019, 2638 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2086 days ago, on December 24, 2020.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 116th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2021 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
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
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers