Sponsors (2)
The bill increases transparency and enables analysis of Medicare Advantage supplemental benefit use and out-of-pocket burdens (potentially improving oversight and benefit design) at the cost of added reporting burden and administrative complexity for plans and vendors, plus privacy/re-identification risks and a modest federal outlay.
Medicare beneficiaries, researchers, and consumer advocates will gain access to enrollee-level and de-identified public-use MA supplemental benefit data, increasing transparency and enabling analysis of who uses supplemental benefits and how plans spend money.
Medicare beneficiaries will benefit because mandated reporting of utilization and out-of-pocket costs can reveal financial burdens on enrollees and inform improvements to supplemental benefit design and oversight.
Taxpayers and program administrators will see faster and more reliable implementation because the bill provides $12 million to HHS to build reporting and data-release infrastructure.
Medicare enrollees face a risk that de-identified public data releases or responses to data requests could be re-identified, potentially exposing sensitive personal health information.
Medicare Advantage organizations, plans, and supplemental benefit vendors will incur increased administrative and compliance costs to collect and submit enrollee-level data starting in 2029, which could be passed on to providers or enrollees or reduce plan resources for benefits.
Supplemental (nonmedical) benefit providers and community partners will face operational complexity because plans may need to collect NPIs and eligibility rules from many vendors, complicating administration and data collection.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires Medicare Advantage plans to submit enrollee-level supplemental benefit utilization and payment data to HHS and funds implementation with $12M in FY2026.
Official title: Amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to increase data transparency for supplemental benefits under Medicare Advantage.
Introduced July 20, 2026 by Mark R. Warner · Last progress July 20, 2026
Requires Medicare Advantage plans to submit enrollee-level data on supplemental benefits (what was offered, who used it, utilization and payments) to HHS starting with plan years on or after January 1, 2029. Directs HHS to make de-identified public-use files available and to provide data for research requests with privacy protections. Provides $12 million in one-time funding for HHS in FY2026 to implement the data collection and publication requirements and preserves prior related Federal Register information-collection notices.