On September 15, 2026, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on health held a hearing entitled, Examining Legislative Proposals to Reform Medicare Provider Payment and Bolster Health Care Cybersecurity. Lawmakers considered a wide range of proposals, including H.R. 1521, the Dental and Optometric Care (DOC) Access Act of 2025. This bipartisan legislation was introduced by Representatives Buddy Carter (R-GA-1) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY-9) and seeks to prohibit private health insurance plans from setting the fees or rates that doctors of optometry, dental surgery, or dental medicine can charge for items and services that the plan does not meaningfully cover. Further, this bill would limit certain dental and vision network contract terms to two years with a provider termination option and require the contracted network rate to apply to dental cleanings even after a patient exceeds annual benefit maximums.

More information on this hearing may be found here. The full text of the bill may be found here.

Additionally, AGD joined a dozen other dental organizations through the Organized Dental Coalition (ODC) in a joint sign-on letter in support of this bill. You can read here.

Impact on General Dentistry: Under this legislation, providers would be able to charge a fair and customary amount for non-covered services rather than be subjected to an insurer’s mandate, even when those services are not covered. This would reduce insurer influence over pricing decisions for services they do not reimburse and could help address concerns regarding the impact of market consolidation and vertical integration in the dental insurance sector on provider contracting, patient costs, and access to care.