HR7116-119

What This Bill Does

The SEPSIS Act adds Public Health Service Act section 317W. The Secretary of HHS, acting through the CDC Director, must maintain a sepsis team to lead education on hospital best practices such as CDC Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements, improve pediatric sepsis data collection, share information with CMS for sepsis quality measures, update sepsis data elements in the United States Core Data for Interoperability with ONC and the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, coordinate HHS outcome-measure work, and carry out other sepsis activities. Within one year, CDC must report to Senate HELP and House Energy and Commerce on adult and pediatric sepsis outcome measures that account for social and clinical risk factors. Within one year and annually afterward, CDC must brief those committees on hospital adoption of best practices, pediatric sepsis rates, HHS coordination, AHRQ evaluation of core elements, National Healthcare Safety Network data sharing, and latest AHRQ sepsis datasets. HHS may establish a voluntary honor roll recognizing hospitals with effective or improving sepsis programs, using public benchmarks. The bill authorizes $20 million for each fiscal year 2026 through 2030.

Who Benefits and How

Adult sepsis patients, pediatric sepsis patients, hospitals improving sepsis programs, CDC sepsis staff, CMS quality-measure staff, AHRQ researchers, ONC data standards staff, and congressional health committees benefit from dedicated sepsis coordination, better data, outcome measures, public benchmarks, and annual reporting. Hospitals with strong or improving sepsis programs benefit from possible honor-roll recognition.

Who Bears the Burden and How

CDC, HHS, CMS, AHRQ, ONC, hospital quality teams, National Healthcare Safety Network data staff, and hospitals applying for recognition must collect data, update interoperability elements, evaluate core elements, prepare reports and briefings, and maintain benchmarks. Federal taxpayers bear the authorized $20 million annual cost for fiscal years 2026 through 2030.

Key Provisions

• Requires CDC to maintain a sepsis team for education, pediatric data, CMS quality-measure support, USCDI updates, and HHS outcome-measure coordination.
• Requires a one-year congressional report on adult and pediatric sepsis outcome measures.
• Requires annual congressional briefings on hospital adoption, pediatric sepsis rates, HHS coordination, AHRQ evaluation, NHSN data sharing, and latest datasets.
• Authorizes a voluntary honor roll for hospitals with effective or improving sepsis programs.
• Authorizes $20 million annually for fiscal years 2026 through 2030.