Sponsor
Chuck Edwards
Representative · R-NC
Official title: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish a civil monetary penalty for certain hospitals failing to comply with certain requirements where such failure immediately jeopardizes the health or safety of patients.
Introduced September 8, 2026 by Chuck Edwards · Last progress September 8, 2026
Representative · R-NC
The bill increases accountability and transparency for for‑profit hospitals to protect patients and drive quality improvements, but risks higher costs, potential service reductions or closures in some communities, and uneven accountability between for‑profit and nonprofit providers.
Patients (especially those with chronic conditions) will face fewer immediate safety risks because CMS can impose fines on for‑profit hospitals that repeatedly create conditions that jeopardize health, creating stronger incentives to fix dangerous problems.
Patients and communities (including rural communities) gain access to enforcement records because CMS must publish each determination on a centralized public website, improving transparency and helping people make informed care decisions.
For‑profit hospitals and health systems face stronger financial accountability, creating incentives to correct problems and potentially improve overall care quality.
Rural communities and local emergency patients could lose access because rural emergency hospitals and critical access hospitals (if for‑profit) may be at risk of closure if repeatedly fined.
Patients (especially those with chronic conditions) could face higher out‑of‑pocket costs or reduced services if for‑profit hospitals pass penalty costs onto patients or cut services to cover fines.
Patients may face unequal protections because the measure targets for‑profit status and would not subject nonprofit hospitals with repeated dangerous failures to the same new fines.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows Medicare to levy up to $10,000/day CMPs on for‑profit hospitals with repeated immediate‑jeopardy findings and requires CMS to publish determinations.
Authorizes Medicare to impose civil monetary penalties on for‑profit hospitals, critical access hospitals, and rural emergency hospitals that have repeated determinations of failures that immediately jeopardize patient health or safety. Penalties can be up to $10,000 per day for each day the jeopardizing failure continued when the same hospital had an earlier immediate‑jeopardy finding within the prior two years, and CMS must publish these determinations publicly. Makes most existing civil monetary penalty enforcement rules (from 42 U.S.C. § 1320a–7a, excluding certain subsections) apply to these new penalties, requires centralized public posting of determinations, and limits the rule to hospitals that are for‑profit (non‑nonprofit entities) with Medicare provider agreements.