Medicare pays rural clinics differently for pain doctors.
H.R. 9642 — Medicare Access to Rural Anesthesiology Act · Filed by John Moolenaar (R-MI) · 10 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 13, 2026 · Reported out
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What it does
The bill lets Medicare pay rural clinics based on what they spend. This is different from how Medicare normally pays. The rule applies only to clinics with fewer than 800 surgeries per year. Pain doctors at these clinics cannot bill Medicare patients separately.
Who it affects
Rural patients who need pain doctors get better access. Rural clinics get a new way to be paid by Medicare. Pain doctors who work at these clinics are affected by billing rules.
One thing to notice
The bill does not set a limit on how much Medicare will pay. Each clinic can have only one full-time pain doctor under this rule.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
10 cosponsors: 6 Republicans, 4 Democrats.
- Jul 13, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 13, 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: 41 - 0”
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 (6,274 characters) on Jul 14, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 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 2026-09-17.
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