# Plain Language Summary: John Lewis Equality in Medicare and Medicaid Treatment Act of 2023

This bill makes changes to how Medicare and Medicaid test new ways of delivering and paying for healthcare. Right now, the government runs experiments through something called the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to try out new healthcare models before rolling them out more widely. This bill says that when the government picks which experiments to run, it needs to specifically focus on reducing health disparities—meaning the gaps in healthcare quality and outcomes between different groups of people, particularly minorities, rural communities, and women.

The bill requires the government to bring in experts who understand health disparities and the social determinants of health (things like poverty, housing, food access, and transportation that affect people's ability to stay healthy) when deciding which new healthcare models to test. It also requires the government to check with specific offices focused on minority health, rural health, and women's health before approving any new models. When evaluating whether these experiments are working, the government now has to measure whether they're actually reducing health disparities and improving health equity, not just whether they're saving money or improving care in general.

Most importantly, the bill creates a new specific experiment called the "social determinants of health payment model" that must start testing by the end of 2024. This model will test new ways to pay for and deliver services in four key areas: mental health and substance abuse treatment, healthcare for people on both Medicare and Medicaid, services in underserved areas, and care for pregnant and postpartum women. The goal is to figure out how to better address the underlying causes of poor health and reduce the higher costs that come from healthcare disparities.

For everyday people, this means the government is committing to making sure that new healthcare experiments don't accidentally make things worse for vulnerable populations, and that they're actively trying to close the gaps in healthcare quality between different communities. It also means more attention to whether people can actually afford and access the basic things they need to be healthy, not just whether they can see a doctor.

John Lewis Equality in Medicare and Medicaid Treatment Act of 2023

Sewell, Terri A.

John Lewis Equality in Medicare and Medicaid Treatment Act of 2023 This bill requires the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to test a payment model that addresses social determinants of health and health disparities, particularly with respect to minorities, underserved areas, and high-risk individuals. The bill also generally incorporates consideration of such factors into the selection, implementation, and evaluation of other models, including the decision as to whether to expand a model's duration and scope.