S. 3607Senate119th Congress (2025-2027)In Committee

A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for expanded coverage of services furnished by genetic counselors under part B of the Medicare program, and for other purposes.

AI-Generated Summary

Updated January 24, 2026 at 3:52 AM UTC

The Access to Genetic Counselor Services Act of 2026 would add genetic counseling to the list of services Medicare Part B pays for. Starting January 1, 2027, services provided by qualified genetic counselors would be covered the same way physician‑provided services are, and beneficiaries would be protected from balance‑billing. The bill also sets the Medicare payment rate for these services.

Key Provisions

Creates a new category called “covered genetic counseling services” that are reimbursable under Medicare Part B when furnished by a licensed genetic counselor or, in states without licensure, a board‑certified counselor meeting HHS criteria.
Defines a genetic counselor as either state‑licensed or, where no license exists, certified by the American Board of Genetic Counseling and meeting additional Secretary‑established criteria.
Adds genetic counselors to the list of providers who may not balance‑bill Medicare beneficiaries for covered services.
Sets Medicare payment for covered genetic counseling at 80 % of the lesser of the actual charge or 85 % of the physician fee‑schedule amount that would apply if a physician provided the service.
Allows the HHS Secretary to implement these changes through an interim final rule with a comment period.

Legislative Activity

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1 earlier action

SenateIntro Referral Latest Action

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text: CR S116-117)

Finance Committee

January 8, 2026

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SenateIntro Referral

Introduced in Senate

January 8, 2026

SenateIntro Referral

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text: CR S116-117)

Finance Committee

January 8, 2026

Floor Debate

1 member

What members said about S. 3607 on the floor

1 Democrat

Sen. Alex PadillaD-CA · Jan 8, 2026

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the bipartisan Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act. This crucial piece of legislation would help local communities defend themselves from the…

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the bipartisan Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act. This crucial piece of legislation would help local communities defend themselves from the growing and pressing danger of wildfires.

This bill would empower communities to implement science-based methods for mitigating wildfire damage and provide funding to design and implement new Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Plans with community members, first responders, and relevant State agencies.

Today, is the 1-year anniversary of the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles that taught us all that not all wildfires are forest fires and as such Federal preparedness efforts need to be improved and streamlined to ensure that we better prepared when the next natural disaster strikes. We increasingly see wildfires in the wildland urban interface, and we must do more to prepare and harden our communities. As the countless fires in my State and across the West have shown us, we need to increase Federal support for communities to mitigate the risk of catastrophic wildfires.

The Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act would work towards this goal by establishing guidelines for communities to conceptualize new Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Plans, CPWRP, that are developed in coordination with community members, first responders, and relevant State agencies.

This bill will achieve this through improving early detection technology, public outreach and education, alerts and warnings, evacuation planning, evacuation execution, and access for first responders; addressing vulnerable populations, including the elderly and those with disabilities; hardening critical infrastructure and homes; applying community-scale defensible space across contiguous areas; building local capacity to implement and oversee the plan; deploying distributed energy resources; implementing strategic land use planning; educating community members; and coordinating with existing wildfire plans like a Community Wildfire Protection Plan. Aside from this, the bill will provide grants for at-risk communities, complete a report on existing programs to protect communities from wildfires, and it will allow for structure hardening that will help build more fire resilient communities.

I would like to thank my colleague Senator Sheehy for being a great partner here in the Senate to advance and put forth commonsense wildfire legislation that will help Western States and the country become better equipped to respond to increasing wildfires. I also want to express my appreciation to Representatives Huffman and Obernolte for leading this effort on the House side.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance this bill this Congress to ensure that communities are better equipped to meet the growing threat of fires.

Bill Text

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Introduced in SenateIssued January 8, 2026

119th CONGRESS

2d Session

S. 3607

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

January 8 (legislative day, January 7), 2026

Mr. Barrasso (for himself, Mr. Welch, Mrs. Capito, and Ms. Rosen) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

A BILL

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for expanded coverage of services furnished by genetic counselors under part B of the Medicare program, and for other purposes.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Access to Genetic Counselor Services Act of 2026.

Medicare coverage of genetic counseling services

(a)

In general

Section 1861 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x) is amended—

(1)

in subsection (s)(2)—

(A)

by striking and at the end of subparagraph (II);

(B)

by adding and at the end of subparagraph (JJ); and

(C)

by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:

(KK)

covered genetic counseling services (as defined in subsection (nnn)(1));

; and

(2)

by adding at the end the following new subsection:

(nnn)

Covered Genetic Counseling Services

(1)

The term covered genetic counseling services means genetic counseling services furnished on or after January 1, 2027, by a genetic counselor (as defined in paragraph (2)) and such services and supplies furnished as an incident to the provision of such services which the genetic counselor is legally authorized to perform under State law (or the State regulatory mechanism provided by State law) as would otherwise be covered if furnished by a physician (or as incident to a physician’s service).

(2)

The term genetic counselor means an individual who—

(A)

is licensed as a genetic counselor by the State in which the individual furnishes genetic counseling services; or

(B)

in the case of an individual practicing in a State that does not license genetic counselors, is certified by the American Board of Genetic Counseling and meets such other criteria as the Secretary establishes.

(b)

Balance billing

Section 1842(b)(18)(C) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395u(b)(18)(C)) is amended by adding at the end the following new clause:

(ix)

A genetic counselor (as defined in section 1861(nnn)(2)).

(c)

Payment

Section 1833(a)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395l(a)(1)) is amended—

(1)

by striking and (HH) and inserting (HH); and

(2)

by inserting before the semicolon at the end the following: , and (II) with respect to covered genetic counseling services (as defined in section 1861(nnn)(1)), the amount paid shall be equal to 80 percent of the lesser of (i) the actual charge for the services or (ii) 85 percent of the fee schedule amount provided under section 1848 that would have applied had the genetic counseling services been furnished by a physician.

(d)

Conforming amendment

Section 1862(a)(14) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395(y)(a)(14)) is amended by inserting covered genetic counseling services, after qualified psychologist services,.

(e)

Rule of construction

The amendments made by this section shall not be construed as preventing physicians and health care providers other than genetic counselors from billing for genetic counseling services under the Medicare program which are otherwise covered under such program.

(f)

Implementation

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services may implement the amendments made by this section by interim final rule with comment period.