Beneficiary Respiratory Equipment Access and Transparency to Home Ventilator Care Act of 2017 or the BREATH Act of 2017

This bill requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to establish by January 1, 2018, policies and standards for determining the appropriate use of certain ventilators under the Medicare program. The CMS may delay such establishment until January 1, 2020, for certain ventilators furnished to individuals with specified medical diagnoses.

Subject to budget neutrality requirements, the bill increases the Medicare payment rate for such ventilators for 2018 and subsequent years.