124 STAT. 404 PUBLIC LAW 111–148—MAR. 23, 2010 SEC. 3024. INDEPENDENCE AT HOME DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM. Title XVIII of the Social Security Act is amended by inserting after section 1866D, as inserted by section 3023, the following new section: ‘‘INDEPENDENCE AT HOME MEDICAL PRACTICE DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM ‘‘SEC. 1866D. (a) ESTABLISHMENT.— ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall conduct a dem- onstration program (in this section referred to as the ‘dem- onstration program’) to test a payment incentive and service delivery model that utilizes physician and nurse practitioner directed home-based primary care teams designed to reduce expenditures and improve health outcomes in the provision of items and services under this title to applicable beneficiaries (as defined in subsection (d)). ‘‘(2) REQUIREMENT.—The demonstration program shall test whether a model described in paragraph (1), which is account- able for providing comprehensive, coordinated, continuous, and accessible care to high-need populations at home and coordi- nating health care across all treatment settings, results in— ‘‘(A) reducing preventable hospitalizations; ‘‘(B) preventing hospital readmissions; ‘‘(C) reducing emergency room visits; ‘‘(D) improving health outcomes commensurate with the beneficiaries’ stage of chronic illness; ‘‘(E) improving the efficiency of care, such as by reducing duplicative diagnostic and laboratory tests; ‘‘(F) reducing the cost of health care services covered under this title; and ‘‘(G) achieving beneficiary and family caregiver satis- faction. ‘‘(b) INDEPENDENCE AT HOME MEDICAL PRACTICE.— ‘‘(1) INDEPENDENCE AT HOME MEDICAL PRACTICE DEFINED.— In this section: ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘independence at home medical practice’ means a legal entity that— ‘‘(i) is comprised of an individual physician or nurse practitioner or group of physicians and nurse practi- tioners that provides care as part of a team that includes physicians, nurses, physician assistants, phar- macists, and other health and social services staff as appropriate who have experience providing home-based primary care to applicable beneficiaries, make in-home visits, and are available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week to carry out plans of care that are tailored to the individual beneficiary’s chronic conditions and designed to achieve the results in subsection (a); ‘‘(ii) is organized at least in part for the purpose of providing physicians’ services; ‘‘(iii) has documented experience in providing home-based primary care services to high-cost chron- ically ill beneficiaries, as determined appropriate by the Secretary; 42 USC 1395cc–5.
