MOST Act
Latest action. Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Ways and Means. H. Rept. 115-764, Part I.
Medicare and Opioid Safe Treatment Act or the MOST Act
This bill establishes several requirements for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and alters requirements under Medicare and Medicare Advantage, related to pain management and opioid use.
For example, the bill requires certified opioid treatment program services to be covered under Medicare.
Additionally, among other requirements, the CMS must review payments under Medicare for opioid and non-opioid pain management procedures, specifically with respect to ambulatory outpatient surgical procedures and hospital outpatient department services. The CMS must ensure that there are no payment incentives for using opioids instead of non-opioid alternatives and must make revisions accordingly.
The bill also requires payment under Medicare to federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics that have health care practitioners who are newly certified to provide medication-assisted treatment (e.g., buprenorphine).
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on May 11, 2018. 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 June 19, 2018: Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Ways and Means. H. Rept. 115-764, Part I.
- 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 115th Congress (2017-18), 442 of the 11,421 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.9 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 May 11, 2018, and 3 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 1 Democrat, 2 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.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on May 11, 2018, 3044 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 3005 days ago, on June 19, 2018.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 115th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2019 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