Promoting Access, Competition, and Equity Act of 2015

Promoting Access, Competition, and Equity Act of 2015 or the PACE Act of 2015

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to ease application criteria and procedures for physician-owned hospitals to expand their facilities. Under current law, expansion of physician-owned hospitals is subject to certain limitations, such as those regarding the extent and frequency of expansion and requiring community output. The bill suspends these limitations with respect to applications for expansion filed before October 1, 2019.

Following the end of this suspension period, hospitals with consistently high quality ratings are included among those hospitals that may apply to expand their facilities. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services may not alter the methodology for computing a hospital's quality rating before October 1, 2019.

With respect to hospitals under development as of March 23, 2010, the bill extends to May 1, 2015, the date by which a hospital may qualify for an exception to the ownership or investment prohibition on physician self-referrals.

The bill also: (1) exempts physician-owned hospitals from specified documentation and coding adjustments, and (2) extends reductions in certain inflationary increases associated with Medicare payments for inpatient hospital services.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov