Legislation that would establish a two-year pilot grant program to support electronic health record (EHR) adoption and interoperability among nursing homes, home health agencies and other aging services providers, was introduced by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) on July 22, 2026.
Under the bill, The Connecting and Advancing Technology for Health Records Systems (CHARTS) Act, eligible providers could receive federal grants to implement, upgrade, or enhance EHR systems and improve their ability to exchange health information with other providers across the care continuum.
The legislation would authorize $5 million annually over the next two years, and individual grants to each provider could not exceed $500,000. The legislation also directs the Department of Health and Human Services to evaluate the pilot program and issue a recommendation on broader expansion if the program demonstrates improved care coordination, quality outcomes, and efficiency.
The bill represents a positive first step towards addressing the exclusion of many aging services providers from earlier federal EHR incentive programs and is intended to strengthen interoperability between hospitals, physicians, home health agencies, nursing homes, and other providers.
LeadingAge called attention to this exclusion in its recent comment letters submitted in responses to CMS’s Request for Information included in the FY26 SNF Prospective Payment System update. Alongside the Long-Term Post-Acute Care Health Information Technology (LTPAC Health IT) Collaborative, LeadingAge called on the agency to take a supportive, capacity building approach, rather than punitive measures, to bring nursing homes into parity with the broader healthcare ecosystem. This legislation largely aligns with that objective, and LeadingAge will continue to monitor its progress as it moves through Congress.
