Kidney Disease Education Access Expansion Act of 2026

• Patients and families: Would let people qualify for education based on hypertension, diabetes, any stage of chronic kidney disease, or other risk factors. It would allow group sessions and caregiver participation and add topics like therapies to slow decline and transplant support.
• Providers and delivery: Would expand eligible educators to include clinical social workers, registered dietitians, rural providers, and trained staff under qualified entities. It would cover telehealth and remove a fixed session cap while ensuring Medicare pays 100 percent of the lesser of actual charge or the fee schedule basis.
• Private plans, screening, and quality: Would add CKD screening to initial preventive exams and annual wellness visits and require private health plans to treat kidney disease education as a preventive benefit for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2027. A federal working group would develop standard measures and must report within 18 months to guide assessments and improvements.

A phased assessment framework would follow the working group report to guide data collection, quality improvement, and potential payment or coverage adjustments.