II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 553
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish a floor on
payments to sole community hospitals located in Alaska and Hawaii
under the hospital outpatient prospective payment system.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY12, 2025
Mr. S
ULLIVAN(for himself, Mr. SCHATZ, and Ms. MURKOWSKI) introduced
the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee
on Finance
A BILL
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish
a floor on payments to sole community hospitals located
in Alaska and Hawaii under the hospital outpatient pro-
spective payment system.
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 ‘‘Save our Lone Emer-4
gency Services Act’’ or the ‘‘SOLES Act’’. 5
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•S 553 IS
SEC. 2. TREATMENT OF SOLE COMMUNITY HOSPITALS LO-1
CATED IN ALASKA AND HAWAII UNDER HOS-2
PITAL OUTPATIENT PROSPECTIVE PAYMENT 3
SYSTEM. 4
Section 1833(t) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 5
1395l(t)) is amended by adding at the end the following 6
new paragraph: 7
‘‘(23) T
REATMENT OF SOLE COMMUNITY HOS -8
PITALS LOCATED IN ALASKA AND HAWAII .— 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—If the Secretary deter-10
mines that the amount of payment under this 11
subsection for covered OPD services furnished 12
by a sole community hospital (as defined in sec-13
tion 1886(d)(5)(D)(iii)) that is located in Alas-14
ka or Hawaii is less than 94 percent of the rea-15
sonable costs (as defined in section 1861(v)) of 16
the hospital providing such services, the amount 17
of payment under this subsection shall be in-18
creased by the amount of such difference. 19
‘‘(B) N
O EFFECT ON COPAYMENTS .— 20
Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to 21
affect the copayment amount under paragraph 22
(8). 23
‘‘(C) A
PPLICATION WITHOUT REGARD TO 24
BUDGET NEUTRALITY .—The additional pay-25
ments made under this paragraph— 26
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•S 553 IS
‘‘(i) shall not be considered an adjust-1
ment under paragraph (2)(E); and 2
‘‘(ii) shall not be implemented in a 3
budget neutral manner. 4
‘‘(D) R
ULEMAKING.—Not later than 6 5
months after the date of enactment of this 6
paragraph, the Secretary shall promulgate regu-7
lations to carry out this paragraph, which shall 8
be effective with respect to covered OPD serv-9
ices furnished on or after the first January 1 10
after such date.’’. 11
Æ
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