H.R. 10311: Health Care Accountability Mission Act of 2026

This bill would let the Secretary of Health and Human Services fine certain for-profit hospitals that repeatedly fail to meet Medicare participation requirements when that failure immediately puts patients’ health or safety at risk.

What it would change

• It amends Medicare law to add a new penalty for certain hospitals that do not comply with required rules and standards.
• The penalty would apply only when the Secretary determines that the hospital’s failure immediately jeopardizes patients.
• The Secretary could impose a civil monetary penalty of up to $10,000 per day for each day the problem continues.
• This penalty could be used in addition to or instead of other actions already allowed under current law.

Which hospitals are covered

The new penalty would apply to a “specified hospital,” meaning:

• a hospital,
• a critical access hospital, or
• a rural emergency hospital

but only if it has a Medicare agreement and is not a nonprofit entity. In other words, the bill targets nonprofit hospitals are excluded, while certain non-profit-owned facilities would not be subject to this new penalty.

Repeat violations

The fine would only be available if the Secretary had already made a similar determination about the same hospital within the prior two years. So the bill focuses on hospitals with repeated serious compliance problems, not one-time issues.

Public reporting

CMS would have to post these determinations on a public website in a centralized way. That would make information about these serious compliance findings easier for the public to find.

Process and enforcement

The bill says that existing procedural rules for Medicare civil monetary penalties would apply to these new fines, except for two specific subsections that are excluded. This means hospitals would generally get the same kind of legal process that applies to other Medicare-related penalty actions.

Relevant Companies

• HCA — Operates a large number of for-profit hospitals that could be subject to the new penalty if they have repeated compliance failures that immediately endanger patients.
• THC — Tenet Healthcare owns and operates for-profit hospitals and could be directly affected by the new fine structure for serious repeated violations.
• UHS — Universal Health Services runs hospitals that could be exposed to the new penalties if they are found repeatedly out of compliance in ways that jeopardize patient safety.
• ACHC — Acadia Healthcare operates inpatient facilities and hospitals in some markets; any covered hospital assets with repeated serious compliance failures could be affected.