Number: 116-4
Date: July 23, 2019 

The Ways and Means Committee favorably reported H.R. 3417, the
“BETTER Act of 2019” and H.R. 3429, the “HEARTS and Rural Relief Act.”

On June 26, 2019, the House Committee on Ways and Means favorably reported two bills of interest to Social Security: H.R. 3417, the Beneficiary Education Tools, Telehealth, and Extenders Reauthorization (BETTER) Act of 2019 and H.R. 3429, the HEARTS and Rural Relief Act.  The bills now await consideration by the House of Representatives.
   
H.R. 3417 includes the following provisions of interest to the Social Security Administration (SSA):

Medicare Outreach Notices

• Would require the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop a Medicare outreach notice, in consultation with SSA and various stakeholder groups.  The notice must include information on the following topics:
• eligibility for Medicare benefits, in particular Part B;
• the penalties for not enrolling in Medicare timely;
• the circumstances under which a person could be allowed to enroll or receive relief from those penalties;
• the need for coordination of benefits under Part B; and
• special considerations for certain populations, including residents of Puerto Rico and veterans.

• Would require SSA to:
• post the outreach notice on our public website;
• include the outreach notice with the Social Security statement we provide to individuals who are attaining age 63, 64, and 65; and
• send the outreach notice to the following people two times around the end of their waiting period for Medicare:
• disability beneficiaries (including disabled widows and people who receive childhood disability benefits);
• Railroad Retirement Board disability beneficiaries; and
• certain Medicare-qualified government employees.

• Would require CMS to reimburse SSA for the cost of our activities related to the outreach notices.
• Would be effective two years after the date of enactment.

Earlier Coverage after Enrollment in an IEP or GEP; Authority for HHS to Establish Special Enrollment Periods

• Would make Medicare coverage take effect earlier for people who enroll during the General Enrollment Period (GEP) and those who enroll during the last three months of their Initial Enrollment Period (IEP), as follows:

• Would allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish special enrollment periods for people affected by emergencies and in other exceptional circumstances.

• Would be effective January 1, 2021.

H.R. 3429 includes the following provisions of interest to SSA:

Eligibility for TRICARE

• Would exempt certain veterans from the requirement that they enroll in Part B in order to be eligible for TRICARE and exempt them from Part B late enrollment penalties.  To qualify, a veteran must be:
• younger than age 65;
• medically retired from the Armed Forces; and
• entitled to Part A because their entitlement to Social Security disability benefits ended due to substantial gainful activity.

• Would require the Department of Defense, in consultation with CMS and SSA, to:
• identify the veterans affected by these changes;
• counsel those veterans on the effects of declining to enroll in Medicare Part B; and
• report to Congress on specified issues related to the bill's implementation.

• Would be effective for veterans who qualify after October 1, 2023.