Sponsors (26)
The bill substantially increases Medicare spending transparency and analytic rigor—helping beneficiaries, researchers, providers, and governments better understand and plan for costs—at the cost of higher administrative expense, privacy/re-identification risk, and the potential for misinterpretation or market disruption if data are incomplete or used without proper context.
Medicare beneficiaries will get much clearer, local- and program-level information on Medicare spending (county/MSA totals and averages, Medicare Advantage vs. traditional Medicare comparisons, and Part A/Part B breakdowns) beginning in 2026, improving transparency and consumer understanding.
Researchers, policymakers, and state and local governments will gain granular historical and projected enrollment and spending data to inform policy design, budgets, trust-fund projections, and targeted reforms.
Hospitals and health systems will receive detailed multi-year historical and up-to-5-year projected expenditure data they can use to improve operational planning and resource allocation.
Medicare beneficiaries face increased privacy and re-identification risk because publishing granular county/MSA and subgroup spending data can make it easier to identify individuals in small populations despite confidentiality protections.
Preparing, de-identifying, analyzing, engaging the public about, and publishing these more frequent and granular datasets will increase CMS/MedPAC/Trustees administrative workload and IT/staff costs, likely requiring additional funding or diverting resources from other work.
Granular comparisons risk being misinterpreted without clinical, demographic, or contextual adjustments, which could lead to misguided policy decisions, unfair public criticism of local providers, and misleading conclusions for beneficiaries and taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires HHS, MedPAC, and the Medicare Trustees to publish new county/MSA and program-level Medicare expenditure, enrollment, and MA vs FFS comparison data beginning with 2025–2026 reports.
Official title: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to publish information on expenditures under the Medicare program, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 24, 2025 by Aaron Bean · Last progress June 24, 2025
Requires HHS, the Medicare Trustees, and MedPAC to publish new, machine-readable county- and MSA-level and program-level data and annual comparisons of Medicare spending, enrollment, and average expenditures for detailed beneficiary categories. HHS must begin publishing annual machine-readable files for Parts A and B expenditures and enrollment beginning with 2025 (including historical enrollment back to 2015); MedPAC must begin annual comparative analyses of Medicare Advantage vs. fee-for-service outcomes in 2026; and the Medicare Trustees must add disaggregated aggregate and average expenditure breakdowns to trustee reports beginning with reports submitted for 2026. The law adds data and publication duties to existing reporting statutes, requires methodology transparency and public comment for MedPAC analyses, mandates the release of replication data while protecting individual confidentiality, and specifies beneficiary-category and geography breakdowns for public disclosure.