ABC-ED Act of 2025
Sponsored By: Senator Christopher Coons
Introduced
Summary
Real-time hospital capacity tracking and targeted emergency-care pilots would tackle emergency department boarding and long wait times by funding data systems, public dashboards, and new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation models. The bill would link state and regional capacity tracking to ED performance metrics while protecting privacy.
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- Patients and families: Would gain public dashboards showing hospital bed availability, ED boarding rates, and wait times to help find care and understand local emergency system strain.
- Older adults and post-acute care residents: Would benefit from CMMI pilots that test geriatric-focused staffing, ED design changes, geriatric protocols, and better coordination with skilled nursing and assisted living for smoother transfers.
- Hospitals, EMS, and states: Would be eligible for grants to build scalable, near real-time systems that track EDs, ICUs, inpatient psychiatric services, and skilled nursing capacity and integrate with hospital electronic health records. The bill would also require the Comptroller General to study best practices and report to Congress within one year on effects on boarding, wait times, and EMS offload times.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Emergency pilots for seniors and psychiatric patients
If enacted, the bill would let Medicare's innovation center test new emergency care models for older adults and people in acute psychiatric crisis. Models could fund staffing and staff education, changes to emergency department space, geriatric-focused policies and quality metrics, and dedicated emergency psychiatric units. Models could also improve transfers and medical information sharing with post-acute care, including faster placements. These pilots would start upon enactment and would mainly affect EDs, post-acute providers, and Medicare and Medicaid patients.
State hospital bed capacity dashboards
If enacted, the bill would let the Department of Health award grants or cooperative agreements to build state- or region-wide, real-time systems that track hospital bed capacity and related emergency department performance. Funded systems would track ED boarding rates, ED wait times for treatment, and how long EMS staff wait to offload patients. Grants could also support a public-facing dashboard with required privacy redactions. These changes would take effect upon enactment for awarded grantees.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Christopher Coons
DE • D
Cosponsors
David McCormick
PA • R
Sponsored 6/5/2025
Thomas Tillis
NC • R
Sponsored 6/5/2025
Angus King
ME • I
Sponsored 6/5/2025
Markwayne Mullin
OK • R
Sponsored 6/5/2025
Lisa Blunt Rochester
DE • D
Sponsored 6/5/2025
Ted Budd
NC • R
Sponsored 6/26/2025
Maria Cantwell
WA • D
Sponsored 6/26/2025
Cindy Hyde-Smith
MS • R
Sponsored 7/10/2025
Peter Welch
VT • D
Sponsored 7/10/2025
Tommy Tuberville
AL • R
Sponsored 3/18/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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