Bills
| 3.23.22

Should Medicare Make Speech Generating Devices More Accessible? (H.R. 1919)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 1919?

(Updated April 29, 2019)

This bill would make speech generating devices (SGDs) more accessible by changing how Medicare covers and pays for devices when patients need them. Eye tracking and gaze interaction accessories for speech generating devices under this bill would be considered durable medical equipment under Medicare for people with a demonstrated medical need for them.

Payments for these devices could be made on a rental basis or a lump-sum amount. Device costs would be capped if they were issued on or after October 1, 2015 and before October 1, 2019.

Argument in favor

Making these devices more accessible would improve the ability of people suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and similarly damaging diseases to communicate and live more independent lives.

Argument opposed

If this is only going to increase the deficit by about $3 million per year, isn’t there a way that these devices could be provided through the public sector or non-profits so the tab doesn't get put on federal budget?

Impact

People who would benefit from using SGDs, their families, health insurance companies, and Medicare administrators.

Cost of H.R. 1919

A CBO cost estimate of the Senate companion of this bill found that it would increase deficits by about $30 million over the 2015-2025 period. That comes to roughly $2.7 million per year.

Additional Info

In-Depth: When discussing her motivation for sponsoring this bill, after the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously approved it, Sponsoring Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) noted: 

“The Steve Gleason Act proactively undertakes innovative eye tracking alternatives and speech-generating devices for those who can no longer speak or type, and addresses the placement of these devices under the ‘capped rental’ category. This common-sense legislation offers support to those who have already been challenged by so much.”

Currently, this legislation has 39 cosponsors in the House from both sides of the aisle — including 17 Democrats and 22 Republicans. The Senate version of the bill has also received bipartisan support from four Republicans, along with one Democratic and one Independent Senator.


Of Note: Many people who are battling ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) — including former NFL player Steve Gleason whom this bill is named after — are only able to verbally communicate with the assistance of eye tracking technology and gaze interaction accessories.

In 2014 the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) was pressured into rescinding a designation that was limiting access to medical equipment like these speech generating devices.


Media:

Summary by Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: "Barack Obama speaks to Stephen Hawking" by Pete Souza - White House Photostream. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)