Medicare expands cancer care planning to close coordination gap
H.R. 10087 — Cancer Care Planning and Communications Act · Filed by Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) · Introduced Aug 13, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill adds Medicare coverage for cancer care planning and coordination services—written treatment plans developed by physicians, physician assistants, or nurse practitioners that incorporate shared decision-making, symptom management, and survivorship planning. Medicare will pay for these plans at the same rate as transitional care management services, starting the year after enactment, with plans furnished at diagnosis, upon treatment changes, at end of active treatment, or upon recurrence.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is straightforward: it adds a new covered service (cancer care planning) to Medicare's benefit package and sets a payment rate. This is routine healthcare coverage legislation, not a tax provision, deregulation, or carve-out.
What the text implies
- Payment rate pegged to transitional care management (CPT 99496) may create downstream pressure on oncology practices to bundle or substitute services, potentially affecting how other cancer-related services are billed or delivered.
- Bill does not specify whether plans must be furnished in-person or can be delegated to non-physician staff, creating potential implementation ambiguity around who actually develops the plan and whether supervision requirements apply.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
oncology practices and physician groups; physician assistants and nurse practitioners in oncology; cancer care coordination vendors and EHR vendors