Concurrent Care for Comfort Act

On April 20, 2026, Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) introduced HR8376, the Concurrent Care for Comfort Act, which amends the Social Security Act to clarify that Medicare covers palliative dialysis services for hospice patients and that such services are paid separately from the hospice bundled payment. The bill was referred to the House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees. As of June 1, 2026, no further action has occurred; the bill remains in early legislative stages.

The bill does not authorize or appropriate any new funding. It modifies existing Medicare payment rules to allow separate billing for dialysis during hospice, which previously was ambiguous. The Congressional Budget Office would likely score this as a small increase in Medicare spending due to increased utilization, but no dollar figure is specified in the bill text.

The primary beneficiaries are dialysis providers DaVita ($DVA) and Fresenius Medical Care ($FMS), which operate the majority of US dialysis clinics. The bill removes a coverage barrier, potentially allowing more hospice patients to receive dialysis. However, the number of Medicare hospice patients who would elect dialysis is small—estimated at a few thousand annually—so the revenue impact is marginal relative to these companies' multibillion-dollar revenues.

No real market data on stock price movements is provided, but structurally, $DVA and $FMS are the only publicly traded pure-play dialysis providers. The bill's low legislative momentum (single sponsor, one cosponsor, early referral) suggests passage is uncertain and unlikely in the near term.

The timeline for this bill is extended: it must pass both House committees, the full House, the Senate, and be signed by the President. Given the 119th Congress is in its second session, the window for passage is narrowing. No companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.