Health ACCESS Act
Health Care: Online Appointment Scheduling
The Health ACCESS Act is currently in the early stages of the legislative process. It was recently introduced in the Senate and sent to the Committee on Finance for review. No further actions are scheduled at this time, and the bill is considered active.
Legislative Progress
This bill has strong support from both a Republican and a Democrat, which is rare. However, many health bills get stuck in committee because there are so many other priorities.
Key Points
- This bill helps Americans find and book medical appointments online more easily. It updates federal laws to allow healthcare providers to pay websites for listing their services and managing schedules.
- To keep things fair, the websites are not allowed to steer patients toward specific doctors based on how much the doctor pays. All recommendations must be based on fair rules that help the consumer.
- The bill includes privacy protections that prevent these websites from sharing a patient's contact information with anyone other than the doctor they actually choose to see.
- Websites must be honest with users by clearly disclosing their financial relationships with the doctors listed on their platform. They are also banned from using aggressive marketing like unwanted phone calls or text messages.
- By creating these new rules, the bill aims to remove legal confusion that currently prevents many doctors from using modern online booking tools. This should lead to more choices and faster scheduling for patients.
Impact Analysis
Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.
Milestones
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.
Introduced in Senate
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
Votes
No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.
News
No related news coverage found for this legislation yet.
Source Information
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
Health ACCESS Act
Data Sources
Sponsor
Cosponsors
(1)Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.