Federal funding expands palliative care training for better end-of-life support
H.R. 4425 — Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act · Filed by Buddy Carter (R-GA) · 9 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 16, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates federal grant programs to train healthcare professionals in palliative and hospice care—pain management and quality-of-life support for patients with serious or life-threatening illnesses. It funds medical schools, nursing programs, and other health professions to develop curricula, train faculty, and support career development in this specialty. It also directs the NIH to expand palliative care research and requires federal agencies to disseminate information about palliative care benefits to patients and families.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is federal grant funding for education and training in palliative care across multiple health professions. It is a straightforward public health investment in workforce capacity, not a regulatory change, tax provision, or industry carve-out.
What the text implies
- Expansion of palliative care training may shift clinical practice norms toward earlier integration of palliative care with curative treatment, potentially affecting treatment decisions and patient expectations across all serious illness populations.
- Federal dissemination of palliative care information (Section 4) could influence Medicare/Medicaid beneficiary awareness and demand for these services, indirectly affecting utilization patterns and reimbursement pressure on healthcare systems.
- The 5-year service requirement for career incentive awardees (Section 2, subsection on career incentive awards) creates a pipeline of palliative care specialists but may also constrain their career mobility post-award.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens with serious or life-threatening illnesses and their families gain access to better-trained healthcare professionals and clearer information about palliative care options. The bill expands a workforce in an underserved specialty, potentially improving end-of-life care quality and reducing unnecessary suffering. No direct costs to the public are imposed; funding comes from federal appropriations.
Who stands to gain
- Medical schools and osteopathic schools
- Nursing schools and nursing education programs
- Health professions schools (social work, physician assistant, chaplaincy, pharmacy, psychology)
- Teaching hospitals and graduate medical education programs
- Hospice and palliative care organizations (as training partners)
- Healthcare facilities and long-term care settings (as training sites)
Named in the bill
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Department of Veterans Affairs, Administration on Aging, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), American Board of Medical Specialties, American Osteopathic Association, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Critical Access Hospitals
Where it stands
9 cosponsors: 8 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Jul 16, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 16, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
6 lobbying clients named this bill on 7 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $3,170,651 in lobbying spend. A filing names 12 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 82% of bills with at least one filing.
Buddy Carter, the sponsor, reported $988,325 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Alzheimer's Association — $1,800,000 on 1 filing
- National Alliance for Care at Home (formerly Natl Assn for Home Care & Hospice) — $610,000 on 1 filing
- American Heart Association — $400,000 on 1 filing
- Catholic Health Association of the United States — $240,651 on 1 filing
- The National Alliance for Care at Home — $100,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jun 8, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
- H.R. 4425 on Congress.gov
- Actions and status history
- Cosponsors (9)
- Alzheimer's Association — LDA filing, 2026 Q2
- National Alliance for Care at Home (formerly Natl Assn for Home Care & Hospice) — LDA filing, 2026 Q2
- American Heart Association — LDA filing, 2026 Q2
- Buddy Carter — FEC candidate receipts, 2026 cycle
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