Medicare to cover early Alzheimer's blood tests starting 2028

What it does

This bill amends Medicare law to cover blood-based screening tests for early-stage Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, effective January 1, 2028. The tests must be FDA-cleared, classified, or approved, and include blood tests, genomic sequencing, protein analysis, and related biomarker tests. Medicare will pay for these screenings as a covered benefit.

Why we flagged it

The bill's sole operative mechanism is to add a new category of preventive screening tests to Medicare's covered services. It is a straightforward benefit expansion, not a regulatory change or carve-out.

What the text implies

• The bill grants the Secretary of Health and Human Services broad discretion to define 'equivalent tests' beyond the specified blood tests, potentially expanding coverage to imaging and other biomarker tests not yet developed or validated.
• No payment rate or reimbursement cap is specified in the bill text; actual Medicare payment rates will be set through separate regulatory process, creating uncertainty about cost to the program.
• The January 1, 2028 effective date provides a 3-year runway for test developers and manufacturers to seek FDA clearance, potentially creating a market-timing incentive.
• Coverage of pre-symptomatic screening (asymptomatic individuals with no symptoms) is broader than many existing Medicare preventive benefits and may drive high utilization rates.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Medicare beneficiaries gain access to a new preventive screening service at no direct cost, enabling earlier detection of Alzheimer's disease when interventions may be most effective. The bill does not restrict any existing benefits or impose new costs on beneficiaries.

Who stands to gain

• in vitro diagnostic (IVD) manufacturers producing blood-based biomarker tests
• genomic sequencing companies
• clinical laboratory service providers
• diagnostic imaging providers (if imaging tests are included under Secretary's discretion)

Named in the bill

Medicare, Social Security Act, FDA (Food and Drug Administration), HHS Secretary, Alzheimer's disease, related dementias, blood-based biomarker tests, genomic sequencing, in vitro diagnostics

Where it stands

230 cosponsors: 136 Democrats, 93 Republicans, 1 Independents.

• Nov 19, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Nov 19, 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…”
• Sep 16, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
• Sep 16, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute by the Yeas and Nays: 40 - 0”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

13 lobbying clients named this bill on 16 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $4,990,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 9 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 94% of bills with at least one filing.

Vern Buchanan, the sponsor, reported $544,700 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle. $3,000 of that came from 1 PAC tied to these lobbying clients.

• Eisai Inc. — $1,500,000 on 2 filings
• Biogen — $1,060,000 on 1 filing
• Acadia Pharmaceuticals — $700,000 on 1 filing
• Quest Diagnostics Incorporated — $470,000 on 1 filing
• Johns Hopkins University — $350,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.