Bill lets some older hospitals get higher Medicare payments
H.R. 9468 — STAR Act · Filed by Kevin Hern (R-OK) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 25, 2026 · Reported out
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
The bill changes how Medicare pays long-term care hospitals. It lets certain hospitals avoid payment cuts. These hospitals must treat very sick patients. The patients must come right after leaving regular hospitals. The bill protects hospitals that existed before it passes.
Who it affects
Long-term care hospitals benefit from higher payments. Medicare and taxpayers may spend more money.
One thing to notice
The bill creates a protected group of older hospitals. Newer hospitals do not get the same breaks.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 4 Republicans.
- Jun 25, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 25, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means”
- Jul 15, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Jul 15, 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
8 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 8 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $4,719,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 1 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 88% of bills with any report.
Kevin Hern, who sponsored the bill, received $2,041,151 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- American Hospital Association — $4,470,000 in 1 report
- Kindred Healthcare D/b/a Scionhealth — $60,000 in 1 report
- Pam Health, LLC — $60,000 in 1 report
- Kindred Healthcare D/b/a Scionhealth (fka Kindred Healthcare Operating, Inc) — $39,000 in 1 report
- National Association of Long Term Hospitals — $30,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- long-term care hospitals — Hospitals that treat patients who need care for weeks or months.
- payment cuts — Reductions in the amount of money hospitals receive from Medicare.
- Medicare — The federal health insurance program for people age 65 and older.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,468 characters) on Jul 16, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 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 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-22.
“Bill lets some older hospitals get higher Medicare payments” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr9468/simple Report an error