Protecting Access to Medicare Act Signed into Law

​On April 1, 2014, President Obama signed the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (H.R. 4302) into law, reports a Long-Term Livingarticle published March 31, 2014, and subsequently updated. One section of the act creates a program to reduce rates of readmission from skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to hospitals. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services must create a readmission measure by October 1, 2015, and a resource use measure by October 1, 2016. The readmission measure will apply to readmissions for all causes and all conditions. The measures will be reported on Nursing Home Compare.