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HR 5439 Cleared committee

Establishes a six-year Medicare pilot in which selected hospitals provide home-delivered, medically tailored meals to qualified patients with diet-related diseases after discharge, aiming to improve health and reduce hospital readmissions.

Official title: Medically Tailored Home-Delivered Meals Program Pilot Act

Next stop House floor: awaiting a vote
Timeline each lane is a chamber; dates pull from congress.gov actions
House
Introduced 17-SEP-2025
Referred 17-SEP-2025
Approved by committee 16-SEP-2026
Key points
  • Requires selected hospitals to screen discharged inpatients and re-screen enrolled patients every 12 weeks to determine eligibility.
  • Requires participating hospitals to deliver at least two medically tailored meals a day for at least 12 weeks, plus medical nutrition therapy, with no cost-sharing for patients.
  • Selects at least 40 hospitals, which must be subsection (d) hospitals with an average overall star rating of at least 3 or critical access hospitals.
  • Funds the program from the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund and reduces payments to subsection (d) hospitals so the reductions are estimated to equal program spending.
  • Requires evaluations of health outcomes and costs, with reports to the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees 3 and 8 years after implementation.
AI-generated from the Introduced in House text of 17-SEP-2025 · verify · report an error
Official CRS summary

No CRS summary yet. CRS writes one for most bills, often months after they move.

CRS is the Library of Congress's nonpartisan research office. Check on congress.gov
Committee referrals (1) Policy area

Health

Sponsor James P. McGovern (D-MA) Cosponsors · 35
■ 30 D■ 5 R