Bill changes how Medicare pays doctors and creates a doctor-led task force.
H.R. 9693 — Patients First Act of 2026 · Filed by John Joyce (R-PA) · 50 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 15, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill creates a new way to pay doctors. Instead of paying per visit, Medicare would pay doctor groups a monthly amount per patient. The bill renames the doctor reporting system to POINTS. It sets up a task force of doctors to suggest rules. The bill limits how much Medicare can cut doctor pay each year. It lets research groups see more Medicare data.
Who it affects
Doctors and doctor groups are affected most. Patients in groups that join the new pay model would pay nothing for basic doctor visits. Patients in other groups would still pay copays. Companies that own doctor groups are also affected.
One thing to notice
Patients in groups that join the new model pay zero for basic visits. Patients in other groups still pay copays. This creates two different systems.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
50 cosponsors: 26 Democrats, 24 Republicans.
- Jul 15, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 15, 2026 — 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
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $60,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 1 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
John Joyce, who sponsored the bill, received $1,454,937 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- American Academy of Family Physicians — $60,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Medicare — The government health plan for people age 65 and older.
- POINTS — The new name for the doctor reporting system that tracks how well doctors follow rules.
- task force — A group set up to study a problem and make suggestions.
- copays — Money patients pay each time they see a doctor or get care.
- 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.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (48,756 characters) on Aug 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 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 2026-09-23.
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