I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2491
To require the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
and the Commissioner of Social Security to review and simplify the
processes, procedures, forms, and communications for family caregivers
to assist individuals in establishing eligibility for, enrolling in, and main-
taining and utilizing coverage and benefits under the Medicare, Medicaid,
CHIP, and Social Security programs respectively, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH31, 2025
Mrs. C
AMMACK(for herself, Mr. MAGAZINER, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. WITTMAN,
Ms. W
ASSERMANSCHULTZ, Ms. ROSS, Mr. SOTO, Mr. COHEN, Mr. VAN
D
REW, Ms. DAVIDSof Kansas, Mr. LANGWORTHY, Mr. GOTTHEIMER,
Mrs. K
IGGANSof Virginia, Mr. GOLDENof Maine, Mr. STEUBE, Mr.
P
FLUGER, Ms. MALLIOTAKIS, Mr. LAWLER, Mr. BUCHANAN, Mr. CASE,
and Ms. O
MAR) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee
on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To require the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare
& Medicaid Services and the Commissioner of Social
Security to review and simplify the processes, procedures,
forms, and communications for family caregivers to assist
individuals in establishing eligibility for, enrolling in, and
maintaining and utilizing coverage and benefits under
the Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and Social Security pro-
grams respectively, and for other purposes.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Alleviating Barriers 4
for Caregivers Act’’ or the ‘‘ABC Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. REVIEW OF MEDICARE, MEDICAID, CHIP, AND SO-6
CIAL SECURITY TO SIMPLIFY PROCESSES. 7
PROCEDURES, FORMS, AND COMMUNICA-8
TIONS. 9
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this Act: 10
(1) A
DMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-11
trator’’ means the Administrator of the Centers for 12
Medicare & Medicaid Services. 13
(2) CHIP.—The term ‘‘CHIP’’ means the Chil-14
dren’s Health Insurance Program established under 15
title XXI of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 16
1397aa et seq.). 17
(3) C
OMMISSIONER.—The term ‘‘Commis-18
sioner’’ means the Commissioner of Social Security. 19
(4) C
OVERED AGENCIES .—The term ‘‘covered 20
agencies’’ means the Centers for Medicare & Med-21
icaid Services and the Social Security Administra-22
tion. 23
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(5) COVERED OFFICIALS.—The term ‘‘covered 1
officials’’ means the Administrator and Commis-2
sioner. 3
(6) C
OVERED PROGRAMS .—The term ‘‘covered 4
programs’’ means Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and 5
the Social Security programs. 6
(7) D
ISABILITY.—The term ‘‘disability’’ has the 7
meaning given such term in section 3 of the Ameri-8
cans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9
12102). 10
(8) F
AMILY CAREGIVER.—The term ‘‘family 11
caregiver’’ has the meaning given the term in section 12
2 of the RAISE Family Caregivers Act (42 U.S.C. 13
3030s note). 14
(9) M
EDICAID.—The term ‘‘Medicaid’’ means 15
the Medicaid program established under title XIX of 16
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396 et seq.). 17
(10) M
EDICARE.—The term ‘‘Medicare’’ means 18
the Medicare program established under title XVIII 19
of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395 et seq.). 20
(11) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any of 21
the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com-22
monwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin 23
Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or the Common-24
wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 25
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(12) SOCIAL SECURITY PROGRAMS .—The term 1
‘‘Social Security programs’’ means each of the fol-2
lowing: 3
(A) The programs for old-age and sur-4
vivors insurance benefits and disability insur-5
ance benefits established under title II of the 6
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 401 et seq.). 7
(B) The program for supplemental security 8
income benefits established under title XVI of 9
such Act (42 U.S.C. 1381 et seq.). 10
(b) R
EVIEW OFPROGRAMS.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator and the 12
Commissioner shall jointly conduct a review of the 13
eligibility determination and application processes, 14
procedures, forms, and communications of Medicare, 15
Medicaid, CHIP, and the Social Security programs. 16
(2) G
OALS OF THE REVIEW.—In conducting the 17
reviews under paragraph (1), the covered officials 18
shall seek ways to— 19
(A) simplify and streamline policies and 20
procedures for determining eligibility for, enroll-21
ing in, maintaining coverage in, and utilizing 22
the full benefits available under the covered 23
programs; 24
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(B) reduce the frequency of family care-1
givers having to— 2
(i) provide the same information to 3
covered agencies more than once; 4
(ii) complete— 5
(I) multiple documents for each 6
covered agency; or 7
(II) documents requesting the 8
same or similar information for mul-9
tiple covered agencies; or 10
(iii) provide information to the cov-11
ered agencies that— 12
(I) the covered agencies already 13
have; or 14
(II) the covered agencies can eas-15
ily receive from other Federal agen-16
cies; and 17
(C) make it easier for family caregivers to 18
work with the covered agencies and the State 19
agencies responsible for administering State 20
Medicaid and CHIP plans by— 21
(i) providing information on eligibility 22
for, enrollment in, maintaining coverage in, 23
and utilizing the full benefits available 24
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under the covered programs to family care-1
givers; 2
(ii) improving communications be-3
tween family caregivers and employees of 4
covered agencies by— 5
(I) decreasing call wait times; 6
(II) ensuring that employees of 7
covered agencies and the State agen-8
cies responsible for administering 9
State Medicaid and CHIP plans pro-10
vide timely answers to the questions 11
of family caregivers; 12
(III) improving the websites of 13
the covered programs— 14
(aa) by making it easier for 15
family caregivers to find informa-16
tion regarding benefit avail-17
ability, eligibility, and how to 18
maintain coverage; and 19
(bb) by designing such 20
websites to align with the re-21
quirements of the Americans 22
with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. 23
12101 et seq.) regarding web de-24
sign; 25
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(IV) improving the timely access 1
to in-person appointments or meetings 2
between employees of covered agencies 3
and family caregivers; 4
(V) providing translation or in-5
terpretation services for family care-6
givers for whom English is not their 7
primary language; and 8
(VI) providing information to 9
family caregivers in accessible for-10
mats, including formats compatible 11
with American Sign Language and 12
multiple languages; 13
(iii) ensuring that employees of cov-14
ered agencies and the State agencies re-15
sponsible for administering State Medicaid 16
and CHIP plans understand how the cov-17
ered programs can help family caregivers; 18
(iv) improving the relationship be-19
tween family caregivers and the covered 20
agencies and the State agencies responsible 21
for administering State Medicaid and 22
CHIP plans, which may include regularly 23
meeting with family caregivers, individuals 24
entitled to, receiving services from, or fil-25
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ing for, 1 or more of the covered programs, 1
and other stakeholders of the covered pro-2
grams; 3
(v) ensuring that employees of covered 4
agencies and the State agencies responsible 5
for administering State Medicaid and 6
CHIP plans who are responsible for resolv-7
ing disputes, appeals, and grievances with-8
in the covered programs receive education, 9
training, and guidance on specific issues 10
faced by family caregivers who participate 11
in the covered programs; and 12
(vi) taking other actions the covered 13
officials may identify. 14
(3) I
NPUT FROM FAMILY CAREGIVERS , ORGANI-15
ZATIONS, AND STATE ENTITIES.—In conducting the 16
reviews under paragraph (1), the covered officials 17
shall seek input from— 18
(A) family caregivers, including family 19
caregivers with a disability, that have interacted 20
with the covered programs; 21
(B) State, regional, national, and Tribal 22
organizations representing or working with fam-23
ily caregivers or individuals receiving care from 24
family caregivers; and 25
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(C) State Medicaid and CHIP programs. 1
(c) A
CTION.—After the reviews under subsection (b) 2
have been completed, the covered officials shall take ac-3
tions that will simplify and streamline policies and proce-4
dures that improve customer service for individuals enti-5
tled to, receiving services from, or filing for, any of the 6
covered programs, and family caregivers. 7
(d) R
EPORT TOCONGRESS.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—No later than 2 years after 9
the date of enactment of this Act, the covered offi-10
cials shall each submit a report to the Committee on 11
Finance of the Senate, the Committee on Ways and 12
Means of the House of Representatives, and the 13
Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House 14
of Representatives that details the results of the re-15
spective reviews each covered official conducted 16
under subsection (b). 17
(2) C
ONTENTS OF THE REPORT .—The reports 18
required under paragraph (1) shall contain— 19
(A) issues that the covered officials identi-20
fied in the reviews and their findings; 21
(B) the actions that the covered officials 22
are taking to address the issues in subpara-23
graph (A); 24
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(C) an estimate on when the actions in 1
subparagraph (B) will be completed; 2
(D) projected annual costs to implement 3
the actions identified in subparagraph (B); and 4
(E) any recommended change in Federal 5
law to address any issue identified in subpara-6
graph (A). 7
(3) U
PDATED REPORTS.—The covered officials 8
shall each submit a report 2 years after submitting 9
the report required under paragraph (1) providing 10
an update to the contents identified in paragraph 11
(2). 12
(4) P
UBLICATION OF THE REPORTS .—The cov-13
ered officials shall make the reports required under 14
paragraphs (1) and (3) publicly accessible on the 15
websites of covered agencies. 16
(e) R
EDUCINGREDTAPE FORSTATEMEDICAID AND 17
CHIP P
ROGRAMS.—Not later than 1 year after the date 18
of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall issue a 19
letter to each State Medicaid and CHIP Director to— 20
(1) encourage State Medicaid agencies to con-21
duct reviews of State Medicaid programs and State 22
CHIP programs similar to the reviews conducted at 23
the Federal level under subsection (b); 24
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(2) provide suggestions, informed by the results 1
of such Federal reviews, for promising practices that 2
States could take to reduce administrative burdens 3
on family caregivers in supporting individuals enti-4
tled to, receiving service from, or filing for, 1 or 5
more of the covered programs in applying for and 6
receiving assistance under State Medicaid programs 7
and State CHIP programs; and 8
(3) identify best practices to support family 9
caregivers. 10
Æ
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