Bill funds training for end-of-life care and expands video doctor visits.
S. 5219 — Compassionate Care Act · Filed by Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Aug 3, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill gives money to train doctors and nurses in end-of-life and palliative care. It requires healthcare settings to measure and report on the quality of end-of-life care. The bill lets people use video doctor visits to plan their end-of-life wishes. It also lets people get hospice recertification by video without traveling. It funds studies on a system to store advance directives. People's wishes would follow them across states and healthcare settings.
Who it affects
People facing serious illness and their loved ones get better access to end-of-life planning. Doctors, nurses, and healthcare groups get training and support. Rural people gain access to end-of-life talks by video.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say how much money will be spent. The actual size of the programs depends on future money choices.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Aug 3, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 3, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- palliative care — Medical care that eases pain and suffering for people with serious illness.
- video doctor visits — Healthcare services delivered by phone, video, or internet instead of in person.
- advance directives — Legal papers that say what medical care a person wants if they cannot speak.
- hospice — Care that focuses on comfort and dignity for people near the end of life.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (11,134 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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