Sponsors (10)
The bill invests federal funds to grow palliative and hospice workforce, research, and patient information—improving care quality and access for many—while imposing taxpayer costs, administrative rules, program caps, and some limits on services that may restrain scale and certain end‑of‑life options.
Healthcare workers (physicians, nurses, CNAs, PAs, social workers, chaplains, faculty) will receive federal-funded training and continuing education in palliative and hospice care, improving clinician skills and likely raising quality of symptom management and end‑of‑life care for patients.
Rural, frontier, tribal, pediatric, and minority communities are prioritized for programs and culturally-informed materials, which should improve access and equity in palliative care for underserved populations.
Students, junior faculty, and academic programs gain supported career pathways and curriculum/faculty development, strengthening the long‑term palliative care workforce pipeline.
Taxpayers will fund the new training, education, materials, and any expanded research priorities (aggregate federal cost across grants and NIH efforts), which diverts federal resources from other priorities.
Caps on fellowship programs, award limits, and narrow eligibility for some grants limit how many trainees and providers benefit immediately, constraining the scale and pace of workforce expansion.
Maintenance‑of‑effort, supplement/not‑supplant rules, cross‑agency coordination, and other compliance requirements create administrative burdens and potential extra costs for hospitals, universities, NIH/HHS staff, and grant recipients.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Creates federal grant, training, public‑information, and research programs to expand palliative care and hospice workforce, education, and research with FY2026–2030 funding authorizations.
Introduced July 16, 2025 by Buddy Carter · Last progress July 16, 2025
Creates new federal grant and training programs to expand palliative care and hospice workforce, education, and research. It funds multi-year training awards, fellowships, interprofessional clinical training across care settings, public information from AHRQ, and an NIH-wide research strategy to improve care and quality of life for people with serious or life‑threatening illnesses. Authorizes dedicated annual funding for FY2026–FY2030, sets program limits and maintenance-of-effort rules for grantees, requires population‑specific public materials, and prohibits use of funds for items or training meant to cause or assist in causing a patient’s death. One grant program takes effect 90 days after enactment; agencies implement remaining programs and materials thereafter.