H.R. 9877

Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2026

Sponsor: Raul Ruiz

26 cosponsors
Follow this bill

Official summary

No official summary yet.

Text of the bill

Expand all

I Data collection and reporting

II Culturally and linguistically appropriate health and health care

III Health workforce diversity

A Diversifying the health care workplace

B Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Behavioral and Mental Health Workforce

C ACCESS in Mental Health Act

D Developing the Community Health Workforce Act

IV Improving Health Care Access and Quality

A Reducing Barriers to Accessing Care

B Improvement of Coverage

C Expansion of Access

1 General Provisions

2 Rural

3 Indian Communities

4 Providers

5 Dental

D Advancing Health Equity Through Payment and Delivery Reform

E Health Empowerment Zones

F Equitable Health Care for All

G Investing in Equity

H Miscellaneous

I Territories Health Equity

1 Medicare

A Part A

B Part B

C Medicare Advantage (Part C)

D Part D

2 Miscellaneous

V Improving health outcomes for women, gender-diverse people, children, and families

A Underserved communities

B Pregnancy screening

C Pregnancy-Related care

D Federal agency coordination on maternal health

E Reproductive and Sexual Health

F Children’s Health

G Elder Care

H Miscellaneous provisions

VI Mental health and substance use disorders

A Access to care and funding streams

B Interprofessional care

C Workforce development

D Children’s mental health

E Community-Based care

F Reports

G Miscellaneous provisions

VII Addressing high-impact minority diseases

A Cancer

B Viral hepatitis and liver cancer control and prevention

C Acquired bone marrow failure diseases

D Cardiovascular disease, chronic disease, obesity, and other disease issues

E HIV/AIDS

Sec. 7408. Health care professionals treating individuals with HIV

(a) In general. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, shall expand, intensify, and coordinate workforce initiatives of the Health Resources and Services Administration to increase the capacity of the health workforce focusing primarily on HIV to meet the demand for culturally competent care, and may award grants for any of the following:

(1) Development of curricula for training primary care providers in HIV/AIDS prevention and care, including routine HIV testing.

(2) Support to expand access to culturally and linguistically accessible benefits counselors, trained peer navigators, and mental and behavioral health professionals with expertise in HIV.

(3) Training health care professionals to provide care to individuals living with HIV.

(4) Development by grant recipients under title XXVI of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300ff–11 et seq.; commonly referred to as the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program) and other persons, of policies for providing culturally relevant and sensitive treatment to individuals living with HIV, with particular emphasis on treatment to racial and ethnic minorities, men who have sex with men, and women, young people, and children living with HIV.

(5) Development and implementation of programs to increase the use of telehealth to respond to HIV-specific health care needs in rural and minority communities, with particular emphasis given to medically underserved communities and insular areas.

(6) Evaluating interdisciplinary medical provider care team models that promote high-quality care, with particular emphasis on care to racial and ethnic minorities.

(7) Training health care professionals to make them aware of the high rates of chronic hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis C in adult racial and ethnic minority populations, and the importance of prevention, detection, and medical management of hepatitis B and hepatitis C and of liver cancer screening.

(8) Development of curricula for training primary care providers that HIV and tuberculosis are significant mutual comorbidities, and that a patient who tests positive for one disease should be offered and encouraged to receive testing for the other.

(b) Authorization of appropriations. To carry out this section, there are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 2027 through 2030.

F Diabetes

G Lung disease

H Tuberculosis

I Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases

J Sleep and circadian rhythm disorders

K Kidney disease research, surveillance, prevention, and treatment

L Diversity in clinical trials

M Additional provisions addressing high-impact minority diseases

N Health Equity and Rare Disease Act

O Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention

P New Era of Preventing End-Stage Kidney Disease

VIII Health Information Technology

A Reducing Health Disparities Through Health IT

B Modifications To Achieve Parity in Existing Programs

C Additional Research and Studies

D Closing Gaps in Funding To Adopt Certified EHRs

E Expanding Access to Telehealth Services

IX Accountability and Evaluation

X Addressing Social Determinants and Improving Environmental Justice

A In General

B Gun Violence

C Nutrition for women, children, families

1 Senior hunger prevention

2 Closing the meal gap

D Universal school meals

1 School breakfast program

2 School lunch program

3 Elementary and secondary education data

4 Amendments to other programs and laws

XI Protections to combat regulatory harm to health equity