Pentagon moves to slash military healthcare provider payments by location
H.R. 873 — To amend title 10, United States Code, to modify the rate of pay for care or services provided under the TRICARE program based on the location at which such care or services were provided. · Filed by Rich McCormick (R-GA) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 31, 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 amends the TRICARE military health program to require the Department of Defense to set reimbursement rates for healthcare providers based on the specific location where care is delivered—distinguishing between hospital inpatient, hospital outpatient (on-campus and off-campus), ambulatory surgical centers, and physician offices—and mandates use of location-specific provider identifiers. The bill also requires the Secretary to pay the lowest authorized rate when multiple rates are available, effective January 1, 2026.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a cost-containment measure targeting TRICARE provider reimbursement. It mandates location-specific rate-setting and a lowest-rate-selection rule, which are standard healthcare payment-reform tools designed to reduce overpayment and align reimbursement with actual service delivery location.
What the text implies
- Location-specific rates may create financial incentives for providers to shift care to lower-reimbursement settings (e.g., off-campus outpatient departments vs. on-campus), potentially fragmenting care coordination.
- The 'lowest authorized rate' mandate may compress reimbursement across geographic markets with different cost-of-living and provider-supply conditions, potentially disadvantaging rural and underserved areas.
- Requirement for geographically specific National Provider Identifier codes may impose administrative burden on providers and TRICARE claims processing, with unclear implementation timeline.
- Reduced reimbursement rates may accelerate provider exit from TRICARE networks, particularly among independent practices and smaller health systems, narrowing beneficiary choice.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Military beneficiaries and their families may benefit from lower TRICARE costs and improved rate transparency tied to actual service location, reducing overpayment for identical services. However, lower reimbursement rates may reduce provider participation in TRICARE, limit beneficiary choice of providers, or degrade care quality—particularly in rural or underserved areas where providers have fewer alternatives.
Who stands to gain
- Department of Defense (reduced TRICARE expenditures)
- Military beneficiaries (lower out-of-pocket costs if rates decline)
Named in the bill
Department of Defense, TRICARE program, Health care providers, 10 U.S.C. § 1097b, National Provider Identifier (NPI)
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.
- Jan 31, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 31, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Armed Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $660,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 66 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 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Rich McCormick, the sponsor, reported $478,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Americans for Prosperity — $660,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 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 (1,391 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 Jun 2026 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 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Pentagon moves to slash military healthcare provider payments by location” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr873 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.