A federal health agency plans to soon authorize health insurance coverage for CBD under certain Medicare programs.

The policy change is being circulated about a month after U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met with the head of an organization behind a video President Donald Trump shared over the summer that touted the therapeutic potential of the cannabinoid. That video specifically called for Medicare coverage for seniors who want to use CBD as an alternative treatment.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under HHS is set to publish a notice in the Federal Register on Friday about a series of changes concerning “marketing and communications, drug coverage, enrollment processes, special needs plans, and other programmatic areas” for insurance programs it oversees. One of those changes deals with cannabidiol coverage.

While CMS implemented an earlier 2026 final rule in April specifically stipulating that marijuana, as well as CBD that can be derived from federally legal hemp, are ineligible for coverage under its Medicare Advantage program and other services, the agency is now revising that policy.

The proposed rule for 2027 would amend regulations, which currently state that any “cannabis products” cannot be covered. The new policy would prevent coverage for only “cannabis products that are illegal under applicable state or federal law, including the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.”

Since hemp and its derivatives like CBD are federally legal, the change suggests patients in states where such products are legal could make valid insurance claims to pay for the alternative treatment option, as long as the product is also federally legal.

That said, recent changes to federal hemp law that are set to take effect next year—and a growing push from states to restrict the sale of consumable cannabinoids—could significantly limit the types of products patients could access. The way the law is written will permit such limited concentrations of THC that most growers and manufacturers say the idea of a CBD carve-out is infeasible. And for companies marketing such non-intoxicating products, that could spell doom—or at least force them to take on the significant added cost of extracting CBD isolates so as not to run afoul of the law.

CMS said in the filing set to be published this week that “hemp and hemp-derived cannabis products that meet the current 2018 definition are not federally controlled substances through November 11th, 2026, and those that meet the amended definition beginning on November 12th, 2026, will remain not federally controlled substances as of that date.”

“If such products comply with all other applicable federal laws, including any future changes to the definition of hemp and applicable provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), then they are not illegal under federal law,” it said.

The revised language broadly discusses coverage eligibility for cannabis products legal at the state and federal level, but the agency also explicitly noted that the rule would allow Medicare Advantage provides to “offer hulled hemp seed, hemp seed protein powder, and hemp seed oil” given that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) already completed a review concluding that those materials are considered generally recognized as safe (GRAS).

The CMS policy change around cannabidiol was detailed in a summary Bloomberg reviewed, with the news organization reporting that the document suggested an early version of the plan could focus on seniors in oncology and palliative care settings—though it’s unclear to what extent the report relates to the latest Federal Register notice, which it did not mention.

But the proposed rule is also being released about a month after Kennedy—the HHS secretary who has previously endorsed providing access to cannabis and psychedelics for therapeutic purposes—met with Howard Kessler, CEO of the Commonwealth Project, to discuss the issue, according to Bloomberg.

Kessler’s organization produced a video Trump promoted on Truth Social in late September that promoted the health benefits of cannabis—suggesting that covering CBD under Medicare would be “the most important senior health initiative of the century.”

“It’s time to educate doctors on the endocannabinoid system, provide Medicare coverage for CBD and give millions of seniors the support they deserve,” it said.

The video Trump posted also briefly featured a Fox News clip describing the economic benefits of medical marijuana legalization, saying that on an annual basis it would amount to cost savings of “$64 billion a year if cannabis is fully integrated into the healthcare system.”

The Commonwealth Project was also a participant in since-stalled hearings on the marijuana rescheduling process that was initiated by the Biden administration. It submitted a comment to the federal docket arguing that the “historic” proposal would provide for “greater, but not complete, certainty for seniors, researchers, and physicians to engage in research or pilot health care projects that examine the benefits and distribution of medical cannabis.”