H.R. 1358 — No Patient Left Alone Act of 2025

This section provides the short title of the Act as the “No Patient Left Alone Act of 2025.”

This section revises the Medicare definition of a hospital under section 1861(e) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 1395x, to require participating hospitals to maintain written visitation policies and procedures. As background, section 1861 defines the provider and service categories used to determine Medicare coverage and payment. Specifically, the section: 1. adds a new paragraph (9) requiring hospitals to have written policies describing any clinically necessary or reasonable visitation restrictions or limitations and the reasons for them; 2. requires hospitals to inform each patient of visitation rights, including any clinical restriction or limitation; 3. requires hospitals to inform each patient, subject to the patient’s consent, of the right to receive visitors designated by the patient, including a spouse, another family member, or a friend, and the right to withdraw or deny that consent at any time; 4. prohibits hospitals from restricting, limiting, or denying visitation on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, or disability; and 5. requires hospitals to ensure that all visitors receive full and equal visitation privileges consistent with the new paragraph. The section also redesignates existing paragraph (9) as paragraph (10) and makes conforming cross-reference changes in subsection (f).