H.R. 1521 · 119th Congress

DOC Access Act of 2025

Introduced on Feb 24, 2025 by Earl L. "Buddy" Carter (R-GA-1). 121 cosponsors, 70 of them from another party. Latest action (Feb 24, 2025): Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Stage
Introduced
Introduced
Feb 24, 2025
Cosponsors
121
70 from the other party
Policy area
Health
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Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. 2Reported by committee
  3. 3Passed one chamber
  4. 4Passed both chambers
  5. 5Sent to the President
  6. 6Became law

Official title

To amend title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act to improve health care coverage under vision and dental plans, and for other purposes.

Subjects

  • Civil actions and liability
  • Dental care
  • Employee benefits and pensions
  • Health care costs and insurance
  • Health care coverage and access
  • Hearing, speech, and vision care
  • State and local government operations

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Introduced in House, Feb 24, 2025). Public domain.

Dentist and Optometric Care Access Act of 2025 or the DOC Access Act of 2025

This bill prohibits private health insurance plans from setting rates for items and services, except for dental cleanings, provided by a doctor of optometry, of dental surgery, or of dental medicine (or an employer of such a doctor) for which the plan does not pay a substantial amount.

Additionally, an agreement between a plan and such a doctor for limited scope dental or vision benefits may last longer than two years only with the prior acceptance of the doctor for each term extension. Plans also may not restrict such a doctor's choice of laboratories or suppliers.

Such doctors may elect to waive the application of the payment amount and choice of laboratories provisions of this bill.

The bill does not supersede state laws regarding health insurers and dental or vision benefit plans.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

Earl L. "Buddy" CarterR-GA-1Sponsor

Democrats · 70

Republicans · 51

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

No recorded roll call on this measure: it moved by voice vote or unanimous consent, or has not reached the floor.

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. Feb 24, 2025Introduced in House
  2. Feb 24, 2025Introduced in House
  3. Feb 24, 2025 · HouseReferred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Committees

Committees and subcommittees the measure was referred to.

Agencies in its committees' jurisdiction

Analisa's mapping of committee jurisdiction to federal agencies; the bill may touch others, or none of these.

Who lobbied on it

Organizations whose lobbying reports (LD-2) name this measure. Spending is what they reported for those quarters on all issues, not on this measure alone.

  1. AMERICAN OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION30 reports
    $4.8M reported (all issues)
  2. AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION12 reports
    $4.1M reported (all issues)Federal contractor: AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION$78.5K in contracts, FY2026AI match · 98%
  3. DELTA DENTAL PLANS ASSOCIATION7 reports
    $180K reported (all issues)
  4. National Association of Dental Plans6 reports
  5. THE GUARDIAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA6 reports
    $3.2M reported (all issues)
  6. VSP6 reports
    $660K reported (all issues)
  7. AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ORAL AND MAXILLOFACIAL SURGEONS5 reports
    $310K reported (all issues)
  8. American Medical Association5 reports
    $31.1M reported (all issues)Federal contractor: AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION$371K in contracts, FY2026AI match · 99%
  9. ESSILORLUXOTTICA USA INC.5 reports
    $760K reported (all issues)
  10. Patients Rising Now5 reports
    $30K reported (all issues)
  11. SUN LIFE FINANCIAL (U.S.) SERVICES COMPANY INC.3 reports
    $450K reported (all issues)
  12. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS2 reports
    $313.7K reported (all issues)
  13. MetLife Group, Inc.1 report
    $370K reported (all issues)

Reports filed in 2025, 2026.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.
  • Money and votes are shown side by side; neither explains the other.