HR-9642 — Medicare Access to Rural Anesthesiology Act

YourVoice.Now Summary

Your MoneyCorporate Benefits

Medicare would pay a few small rural hospitals for anesthesia — patients there would skip a separate doctor charge.

Your Money

Separate anesthesia bills — Medicare patients at qualifying rural hospitals

To qualify, the hospital's anesthesiologist must agree not to bill Part B for work there. Part B bills usually leave the patient a share to pay. That share would go away.

Corporate Benefits

Medicare covering anesthesiologists' costs — at qualifying small rural hospitals

Qualifying hospitals would be paid what their anesthesiologist's work costs them. That work would no longer be billed to Part B. At hospitals paid a fixed price per stay, these costs would sit outside that price.

More about this bill

Medicare would pay for anesthesia a new way at a few small rural hospitals. Today the doctor who gives the anesthesia bills Medicare Part B, the part that pays doctors. Under this change, Medicare would pay the hospital what that doctor's work costs instead. Patients there would not get a separate Part B charge for anesthesia. It would start one year after the law passed. Very few hospitals would qualify. A hospital must sit in a rural area, not just be treated as one. It must have had an anesthesiologist on staff or under contract when the law passed. Its anesthesia staffing could not add up to more than one full-time doctor. It must have had no more than 800 surgeries needing anesthesia in 2026. It would have to stay at or under that count in later years. Health officials could raise the 800 limit. The anesthesiologist must also agree to stop billing Part B there. Critical access hospitals, the smallest rural ones, could qualify too.

Congressional Summary

Medicare Access to Rural Anesthesiology ActThis bill modifies the Medicare payment methodology for anesthesiologists in rural hospitals.Specifically, the bill provides that payment must be made on a reasonable cost basis for anesthesiologists in rural hospitals and critical access hospitals that have no more than 800 surgical procedures requiring anesthesia services per year (or a higher number set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services).

Legislative Subjects

Administrative law and regulatory proceduresDepartment of Health and Human ServicesHealth care costs and insuranceHealth care coverage and accessHospital careMedicareRural conditions and developmentSurgery and anesthesia

Details

Congress: 119th
Chamber: House
Status: summarized
Action: Introduced in House
Action Date: 2026-07-13
Date Added: 2026-09-03
Source: Congress.gov →

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