# 119-hr-8271: ICU Bed Act of 2026

119-hr-8271, ICU Bed Act of 2026, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Rep. Obernolte, Jay [R-CA-23] (R-CA); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-10-07).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-8271
- As of: 2026-10-07
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-hr-8271
- Congress: 119
- Title: ICU Bed Act of 2026
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-04-14
- Sponsor: Rep. Obernolte, Jay [R-CA-23] (R-CA)
- Cosponsors: 5
- Policy area: Health
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-10-07

## Summary

**Real-time ICU bed reporting** would become a condition of Medicare participation for hospitals, critical access hospitals, and rural emergency hospitals. The bill would also require regional data sharing and coordinated patient-transfer plans to manage ICU capacity. - Hospitals, critical access hospitals, and rural emergency hospitals would have to join a shared, real-time system that shows ICU bed availability and keep a shared strategy to transfer patients when ICUs reach or near capacity. This reporting requirement would start 1 year after enactment and would be tied to Medicare participation. - Patients and families would benefit from coordinated transfers when local ICUs fill, because hospitals in a region must maintain plans to move patients efficiently to available ICU beds. - The Secretary would set regions for data sharing based on geography and travel time to make transfers practical. Hospitals in the same region would see each other’s real-time ICU counts. - The bill adds patient-transfer planning to federal public health emergency preparedness activities and extends the related authorities through fiscal years 2026 through 2031.

## Cosponsors (5)

- Rep. Kelly, Mike [R-PA-16] (R-PA), 2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Dingell, Debbie [D-MI-6] (D-MI), 2026-04-14T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Bentz, Cliff [R-OR-2] (R-OR), 2026-06-23T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Tenney, Claudia [R-NY-24] (R-NY), 2026-07-09T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Rulli, Michael A. [R-OH-6] (R-OH), 2026-07-13T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- New Medicare rules for ICU beds: mixed, high. If enacted, this bill would require hospitals, critical access hospitals, and rural emergency hospitals to join a shared system. That system would report ICU bed availability in real time to other hospitals in the same Secretary-defined region. Starting one year after enactment, complying with thes…

## Related bills

- 119-hr-9237: Take Care of America’s Veterans Act
- 119-hr-1262: Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act
- 119-hr-842: Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act
- 119-hr-5401: Pay Our Troops Act of 2026
- 119-hr-3514: Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act of 2025
- 119-hr-3164: Ensuring Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act

## Sources
- [119-hr-8271 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8271)

## Related
- [119-hr-9237: Take Care of America’s Veterans Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-9237)
- [119-hr-1262: Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-1262)
- [119-hr-842: Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage A…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-842)
- [119-hr-5401: Pay Our Troops Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-5401)
- [119-hr-3514: Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3514)
- [119-hr-3164: Ensuring Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3164)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-8271 (as of 2026-10-07).