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119th Congress Health

H.R. 9693: Patients First Act of 2026

Introduced

  1. Introduced (completed)Jul 15, 2026
  2. Passed House (not reached)
  3. Passed Senate (not reached)
  4. To the President (not reached)
  5. Became law (not reached)

Summary

Introduced in House, Jul 15, 2026

This bill modifies payments and incentive programs under the Medicare physician fee schedule.

The bill establishes a temporary program to provide hybrid payments for certain primary care services. Under the program, payments for services relating to care management, behavioral health integration, office-based evaluation and management (including telehealth), and communications (e.g., phone calls) are made on a monthly basis to providers for each individual that is attributed to the provider's practice. The monthly amount is based on the national average amount for such services. Providers may opt into the model; in order to qualify, providers must be owned or controlled by health care practitioners and must have had the majority of their prior year's payments consist of payments for the covered services.

The bill also renames the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and modifies the program to include performance measures relating to care efficiency (e.g., reducing avoidable hospitalizations). (MIPS is an incentive program under Medicare that allows health professionals to receive payment adjustments based on certain performance measures.) The bill generally reduces the program's performance-based payment adjustments, including positive adjustments for providers that are not owned or controlled by health care practitioners.

Read the full summary

Finally, the bill allows for larger annual adjustments to the Medicare physician fee schedule and bases these adjustments on inflation. It also requires certain corrections to compensate for expenditures under the fee schedule that exceed a certain amount in a given year, and it limits how much certain adjustment factors may vary each year.

Written by the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.

Roll calls

0 votes on this bill

No roll call votes have been held on this bill.

Amendments

0 offered

No amendments were offered to this bill.

Cosponsors

65

Bipartisan support.

Who scored on this bill

18 points earned
  1. 1John Joyce R-PA SponsorDrew cross-party cosponsors, reached a cosponsor milestone, introduced4 events+18
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Introductions and cosponsorships count toward weekly caps and show no points.

Other bills by John Joyce

History

  1. Jul 15, 2026Introduced in the House by John Joyce.
Show the full action history (2 actions)
  1. Jul 15, 2026Introduced in House
  2. Jul 15, 2026Referred 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.