Mandatory fraud bans could shrink provider access in rural America
H.R. 6108 — To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to require the Secretary to exclude certain individuals and entities who commit fraud from participation in any Federal health care program. · Filed by Mark Pocan (D-WI) · 17 cosponsors · Introduced Nov 18, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends federal law to make it mandatory for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to exclude individuals and entities convicted of fraud-related crimes from participating in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs. Currently, such exclusions are discretionary; this bill makes them automatic for convictions occurring after the bill's enactment, covering both health-care-specific fraud and fraud in other government-funded programs.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a mandatory exclusion rule for fraud convictions in federal health care programs. It is a compliance and enforcement measure, not a subsidy, deregulation, or commemorative act.
What the text implies
- One-year retroactive application may exclude providers currently in good standing if they have prior convictions, disrupting existing patient-provider relationships without transition period.
- Mandatory exclusion with no Secretary discretion removes ability to consider mitigating factors, rehabilitation, or proportionality—a provider convicted of minor embezzlement faces same bar as major fraud.
- Expansion to fraud in ANY government-funded program (not just health care) may exclude providers for unrelated conduct, potentially over-inclusive.
- Reduced provider participation in rural or underserved areas may worsen access disparities if excluded providers were among few available options.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill protects public funds and deters fraud in federal health care programs, a genuine public benefit. However, mandatory exclusions with no discretion may reduce provider availability in underserved areas, potentially limiting patient access to care, and the one-year retroactive application may disrupt existing provider relationships without transition time.
Named in the bill
Secretary of Health and Human Services, Social Security Act Section 1128, Medicare, Medicaid, Federal health care programs, Section 1128A, Section 1128B, Section 1129
Where it stands
17 cosponsors: 17 Democrats.
- Nov 18, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Nov 18, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means and House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $40,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 18 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 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Mark Pocan, the sponsor, reported $474,320 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Center for Health and Democracy — $20,000 on 1 filing
- Social Security Works — $20,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 16, 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 bill text published by Congress.gov (2,121 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; 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 Dec 2025. 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 Jan 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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