S.Amdt. 3335

SA 3335. Mr. JOHNSON submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 524, to authorize the Attorney General to award
grants to address the national epidemics of prescription opioid abuse
and heroin use; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

SEC. __. REMOVING CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN PAIN-RELATED
ISSUES FROM CALCULATIONS UNDER THE MEDICARE
HOSPITAL VALUE-BASED PURCHASING PROGRAM.

Section 1886(o)(2)(B) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.
1395ww(o)(2)(B)) is amended--
(1) in clause (i)(II), by inserting ``, subject to clause
(iii),'' after ``shall''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new clause:
``(iii) Exclusion of certain pain-related measures.--For
value-based incentive payments made with respect to
discharges occurring during fiscal year 2017 or a subsequent
fiscal year, the Secretary shall ensure that measures
selected under subparagraph (A) do not include measures based
on any assessments by patients, with respect to hospital
stays of such patients, of--

``(I) the need of such patients, during such stay, for
medicine for pain;
``(II) how often, during such stay, the pain of such
patients was well controlled; or
``(III) how often, during such stay, the staff of the
hospital in which such stay occurred did everything they
could to help the patient with the pain experienced by the
patient.''.

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