Medicare sets new home health payment rate and tightens fraud rules.
S. 5250 — Medicare Home Health Payment Integrity and Protection Act of 2026 · Filed by Susan Collins (R-ME) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Aug 5, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill changes how Medicare pays for home health care. Starting in 2027, Medicare will pay $2,382.87 per unit. Home health agencies must pass stricter checks before working with Medicare. Agencies must submit quality data or lose some payment. The bill gives $550 million over five years to enforce these rules.
Who it affects
Home health agencies must follow stricter rules to get paid by Medicare. Medicare patients may see changes in home health services.
One thing to notice
The bill sets a specific payment amount for 2027. It stops certain payment increases that agencies used to get.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Aug 5, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 5, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S4477-4478)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- Medicare — A government health insurance program for people age 65 and older.
- home health agencies — Companies that send nurses and helpers to care for sick people at home.
- fraud — Lying or cheating to get money you should not get.
- quality data — Facts about how well an agency takes care of patients.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (13,896 characters) on Aug 12, 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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