Medicare expands coverage for precision lung cancer testing
H.R. 6321 — Lung Cancer Medicare Access to Precise Testing Act · Filed by Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Nov 28, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill requires Medicare to cover lung cancer biomarker testing—tests that identify specific genetic or molecular markers in a patient's tumor to guide treatment—starting January 1, 2027. Medicare will pay 100% of reasonable charges for these tests when furnished to individuals already diagnosed with lung cancer, with no patient cost-sharing.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to add a diagnostic service to Medicare's covered benefits and mandate full payment. It is a straightforward coverage mandate with no riders, carve-outs, or hidden provisions.
What the text implies
- Effective date (January 1, 2027) gives manufacturers and labs ~2 years to prepare; early adoption may occur before the mandate takes effect.
- Definition of 'reasonable charges' is not specified in this bill—it will be determined by CMS rulemaking, creating potential for future disputes over reimbursement rates.
- Bill covers only individuals already diagnosed with lung cancer; it does not mandate coverage for screening biomarker testing in asymptomatic populations, limiting scope.
- No volume cap or prior-authorization requirement is stated, so utilization and cost growth are unconstrained by the bill's text.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with lung cancer gain access to a precision-medicine diagnostic tool at no cost, enabling more targeted treatment decisions. The bill expands a covered benefit without restricting existing protections or imposing new patient burdens.
Who stands to gain
- diagnostic laboratory companies
- biomarker testing manufacturers
- genomic sequencing service providers
Named in the bill
Medicare, Social Security Act, CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), lung cancer biomarker testing industry
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Nov 28, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Nov 28, 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 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $690,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 46 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.
Josh Gottheimer, the sponsor, reported $1,000,800 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle. $2,500 of that came from 1 PAC tied to these lobbying clients.
- Equifax, Inc — $500,000 on 1 filing
- American Lung Association — $190,000 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 bill text published by Congress.gov (1,190 characters) on Jun 8, 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 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.
“Medicare expands coverage for precision lung cancer testing” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr6321 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.