Congress·In Committee·S. 1974

Sen. Coons Leads Bipartisan Push to Track Hospital Bed Openings and Reduce ER Wait Times

ABC-ED Act of 2025

10 months ago·View on Congress.gov

Legislative Progress

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Key Points

The bill creates grants for states and regions to build real-time systems that track how many hospital beds are available, including how that capacity affects ER wait times and how long ambulances are stuck waiting to drop off patients.
It requires the creation of public-facing dashboards so anyone can see how crowded local hospitals are, with personal health information removed to protect patient privacy.
From policy text
“establishing or maintaining a public-facing dashboard of the information tracked pursuant to systems described in clause (i), with such information redacted in accordance with applicable privacy laws”
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The bill mandates new pilot programs through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to improve emergency care for older adults, including better staffing, physical changes to ER layouts, geriatric-focused protocols, and smoother coordination with nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
A separate pilot program targets people experiencing acute psychiatric crises, encouraging hospitals to set up dedicated psychiatric units in ERs and speed up transfers to longer-term mental health care facilities.
The Government Accountability Office must complete a study within one year on the best ways to build hospital capacity tracking systems, including whether they actually reduce ER boarding rates, wait times, and ambulance offload delays.
From policy text
“Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall-- (1) complete the study under subsection (a); and (2) submit to Congress a report on the results of such study.”
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Impact Analysis

Personal Impact

Who is affectedScoreImpactCertaintyScopeDurationSentiment

Scores: 1 = low, 5 = highSentiment: -5 to +5 (net benefit)

Milestones

2 milestones2 actions

Jun 5, 2025Senate

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Jun 5, 2025

Introduced in Senate

What Happens Next

Projected impacts based on AI analysis

Within 1 year of enactment

GAO study on hospital capacity tracking best practices is due to Congress

This report will shape how states build their bed-tracking systems and whether the approach is expanded nationally.

Related News

3 articles

Chief Healthcare Executive·7 months ago

Lawmakers take aim at boarding in hospital emergency rooms

Lawmakers in the House and Senate have sponsored the Addressing Boarding and Crowding in the Emergency Department (ABC-ED) Act to tackle the high volume of patients stuck in ERs. The bill authorizes data collection on patient volumes and supports real-time hospital bed tracking systems.

Cape Gazette·9 months ago

U.S. Senate bill aims to improve hospital care

Bipartisan legislation introduced by Sens. Chris Coons and David McCormick would fund research into lengthy ER waits and hospital bed tracking. The ABC-ED Act aims to alleviate 'boarding' where patients are queued in emergency rooms for days due to lack of inpatient capacity.

C+

Education and Career News·6 months ago

When Emergency Departments Are Also Waiting Rooms, Patients and Providers Suffer

The article discusses the profound impact of ER boarding on patient safety and nurse burnout. It highlights the ABC-ED Act as a federal solution that would modernize bed tracking and implement Medicare pilot programs for psychiatric and geriatric patients.

Related Bills

1 bill

H.R. 2936Related bill

Addressing Boarding and Crowding in the Emergency Department

Apr 17 — Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.