II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1140
To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to lower barriers to increase
patient access to health care.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH26, 2025
Mr. C
ASSIDY(for himself and Mr. PADILLA) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to lower
barriers to increase patient access to health care.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Health Accelerating 4
Consumer’s Care by Expediting Self-Scheduling Act’’ or 5
the ‘‘Health ACCESS Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO SECTION 1128B. 7
Section 1128B(b) of the Social Security Act (42 8
U.S.C. 1320a–7b(b)) is amended— 9
(1) in paragraph (3)— 10
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•S 1140 IS
(A) by moving the left margins of subpara-1
graphs (J) and (K) 2 ems to the left; 2
(B) in subparagraph (K), by striking 3
‘‘and’’ at the end; 4
(C) in subparagraph (L), by striking the 5
period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 6
(D) by adding at the end the following new 7
subparagraph: 8
‘‘(M) any remuneration paid by a provider of 9
services (as defined in section 1861(u)) or a supplier 10
(as defined in section 1861(d)) to an information 11
service provider (as defined in paragraph (5)), if— 12
‘‘(i) such information service provider does 13
not— 14
‘‘(I) steer or lead a consumer to select 15
a particular provider of services or supplier 16
based on the amount a provider of services 17
or supplier pays or may pay the informa-18
tion service provider; 19
‘‘(II) provide, or represent itself as 20
providing, any medical items or services, 21
diagnostic or counseling services or assess-22
ments of illness or injury, or make any 23
promises of cure or guarantees of treat-24
ment; 25
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•S 1140 IS
‘‘(III) provide contact information re-1
garding a consumer (as defined in para-2
graph (5)) to providers of services or sup-3
pliers, except to the specific provider of 4
services or supplier selected by the con-5
sumer; 6
‘‘(IV) provide or arrange for transpor-7
tation of an individual to, or from, the lo-8
cation of a provider of services or supplier; 9
‘‘(V) provide or arrange for the provi-10
sion of any other remuneration to a Fed-11
eral health care program beneficiary other 12
than the inherent convenience of the infor-13
mation service; or 14
‘‘(VI) engage in targeted marketing of 15
a particular provider or supplier through 16
phone calls or text messages, with respect 17
to consumers or potential consumers who 18
have not previously interacted with the in-19
formation service provider or who have 20
opted out; 21
‘‘(ii) the methodology for determining com-22
pensation paid to the information service pro-23
vider by a provider of services or supplier is set 24
in advance in writing, and the compensation: 25
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•S 1140 IS
(I) does not exceed fair market value; (II) is for 1
services, specified in writing; and (III) does not 2
take into account the value of any items or 3
services payable in whole or in part by a Fed-4
eral health care program that result from rec-5
ommendations by the information service pro-6
vider for the provider of services or supplier; 7
‘‘(iii) such information service provider 8
clearly discloses the financial arrangement be-9
tween it and the providers of services or sup-10
pliers participating in such service to con-11
sumers; 12
‘‘(iv) such information service provider fur-13
nishes provider- and supplier-specific informa-14
tion to consumers based only on objective, con-15
sumer-centric criteria; 16
‘‘(v) such information service provider de-17
velops objective criteria for participation in such 18
information service and does not exclude any 19
providers of services or suppliers who meet such 20
criteria from participating therein; and 21
‘‘(vi) such information service provider 22
meets such other conditions as may be deter-23
mined appropriate by the Secretary.’’; and 24
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(E) by adding at the end the following new 1
paragraph: 2
‘‘(5) D
EFINITION OF CONSUMER; INFORMATION 3
S
ERVICEPROVIDER.—For purposes of paragraph (3)(M): 4
‘‘(A) C
ONSUMER.—The term ‘consumer’ means 5
an individual who uses a web-based platform oper-6
ated by an information service provider for the pur-7
pose of searching providers of services or suppliers. 8
‘‘(B) I
NFORMATION SERVICE PROVIDER .—The 9
term ‘information service provider’ means any indi-10
vidual or entity operating a web-based platform that 11
makes information regarding providers of services or 12
suppliers available to consumers.’’. 13
Æ
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