Medicare must decide payment rules faster and hold public meetings.
S. 5475 — Timely Access to Coverage Decisions Act · Filed by Ben Luján (D-NM) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 23, 2026 · Referred to committee
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 sets strict time limits for Medicare decisions. Medicare must say within 60 days if a request is complete. Medicare must make a final choice within one year. Before deciding, Medicare must hold public meetings. Medicare must ask experts and the public for input. Patients, doctors, and suppliers can ask for a formal review of a final choice.
Who it affects
Patients who need treatments depend on these choices. Doctors, hospitals, and supply firms depend on these choices. Medicare must follow new time limits and hold public meetings.
One thing to notice
If Medicare misses the one-year deadline, the bill does not say what happens. The bill lets the federal government decide who can ask for a review.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Sep 23, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 23, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- Medicare — A federal health insurance program for people age 65 and older.
- public meetings — Meetings that anyone can attend to hear and speak about a topic.
- formal review — An official process to check if a decision was made the right way.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (10,842 characters) on Oct 16, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 2026-10-20.
“Medicare must decide payment rules faster and hold public meetings.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5475/simple Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.