Congress restores federal hospital funding to Tennessee after years of cuts
H.R. 6393 — DSH in Tennessee Act · Filed by Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 3, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill restores federal Medicaid funding for Tennessee hospitals designated as disproportionate-share hospitals (DSH), which serve large numbers of uninsured and low-income patients. Starting in fiscal year 2026, Tennessee will receive a permanent annual DSH allotment equal to what it received in 2015, adjusted annually for inflation, reversing a prior reduction and placing Tennessee on the same funding trajectory as other low-DSH states.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a permanent restoration of federal DSH payments to a single state, reversing a prior reduction and indexing future payments to inflation. This is a targeted fiscal allocation to support hospital operations serving vulnerable populations.
What the text implies
- The bill ties Tennessee's DSH allotment to its FY2015 baseline, which may be higher or lower than what a formula-based allocation would yield under current law, creating a state-specific carve-out that deviates from standard Medicaid DSH distribution methodology.
- By exempting Tennessee from the TennCare Demonstration Project terms and the standard DSH table in paragraph (2), the bill overrides negotiated state-federal agreements and may set a precedent for other states to seek similar restorations.
- The inflation-indexing mechanism (CPI-U) may diverge from the growth rates applied to other low-DSH states, potentially creating long-term funding disparities if inflation outpaces or lags the standard DSH adjustment formula.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Tennessee residents, particularly uninsured and low-income patients, benefit from restored federal funding to hospitals that serve them. DSH payments help hospitals offset uncompensated care costs, which can reduce cost-shifting to insured patients and support hospital financial stability in underserved areas.
Who stands to gain
- Tennessee hospitals (particularly disproportionate-share hospitals)
- Hospital systems serving uninsured and low-income populations in Tennessee
Named in the bill
State of Tennessee, Social Security Act § 1923(f)(3), TennCare Demonstration Project, Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) program, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 5 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Dec 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Dec 3, 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.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,540 characters) on Aug 21, 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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