Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2026
Latest action · May 21, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedMay 21, 2026
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2026
This bill deems an individual receiving outpatient observation services in a hospital as an inpatient for purposes of satisfying the three-day inpatient hospital-stay requirement with respect to Medicare coverage of skilled nursing facility (SNF) services. (Generally, individuals must have been an inpatient at a hospital for at least three days in order to qualify for SNF services. An individual's time spent under observation at a hospital for purposes of determining whether the individual should be admitted does not count towards this requirement.)
Cosponsors 6
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from May 21, 2026 to Jul 28, 2026, with 2 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-VT | Peter Welch | Original | May 21, 2026 |
| R-WV | Shelley Moore Capito | Original | May 21, 2026 |
| R-AL | Katie Boyd Britt | Jun 15, 2026 | |
| D-CA | Adam B. Schiff | Jun 23, 2026 | |
| D-RI | Sheldon Whitehouse | Jun 23, 2026 | |
| D-DE | Christopher A. Coons | Jul 28, 2026 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- May 21, 2026Introduced in Senate
- May 21, 2026Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Related bills 1
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR 3954 | Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2025 | Related bill | Jun 12, 2025 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Health.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- May 21, 2026Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.