HR9129-118

Introduced

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish certain standards and requirements with respect to financial assistance and medical debt collection for hospitals participating in the Medicare program, and to amend title III of the Public Health Service Act to establish a grant program for purposes of medical debt relief.

118th Congress Introduced Jul 24, 2024

Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.

Summary

What This Bill Does

This bill, To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish certain standards and requirements with respect to financial assistance and medical debt collection for hospitals participating in the Medicare program, and to amend title III of the Public Health Service Act to establish a grant program for purposes of medical debt relief., changes federal law or congressional policy affecting health care providers and patients. The main policy domain is Healthcare, Social Welfare, Technology.

Who Benefits and How

health care providers and patients may benefit from new authority, funding, eligibility, regulatory clarity, or reduced risk created by the bill.

Who Bears the Burden and How

federal implementing agencies, health care providers and patients may take on implementation duties, reporting obligations, compliance costs, or oversight responsibilities.

Key Provisions

  • Section H52FF7D5E88D84942AA745E558432ED39: 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Patient Debt Relief Act.
  • Section H4295489301DB4E688977C0387F38B46F: 2. Establishing standards and requirements with respect to financial assistance and medical debt collection as condition of participation in the Medicare...
  • Section HA5A1E8945B934430A69CF4CE974B342C: 3. Medical debt relief program Part P of title III of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 280g et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new...
  • Section H65157A20C764467189D58D28BC9BAA1F: 399V–8. Medical debt relief grant program Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary shall establish a program under...

Evidence Chain:

This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.

At a Glance

What This Bill Does

This bill, To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish certain standards and requirements with respect to financial assistance and medical debt collection for hospitals participating in the Medicare program, and to amend title III of the Public Health Service Act to establish a grant program for purposes of medical debt relief., changes federal law or congressional policy affecting health care providers and patients.

Key Policy Areas

Healthcare, Social Welfare, Technology

Primary Purpose

This bill, To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish certain standards and requirements with respect to financial assistance and medical debt collection for hospitals participating in the Medicare program, and to amend title III of the Public Health Service Act to establish a grant program for purposes of medical debt relief., changes federal law or congressional policy affecting health care providers and patients.

Policy Domains

Healthcare Social Welfare Technology

Whole bill

Identified Gains
  • health care providers and patients
Model: codex-gpt-5 | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: ih
health care providers and patients: ,
Identified Costs
  • federal implementing agencies
  • health care providers and patients
Model: codex-gpt-5 | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: ih
federal implementing agencies: ,
health care providers and patients: ,

Legislative Progress

Introduced
Introduced Committee Passed
Jul 24, 2024

Mr. Vasquez (for himself, Mr. Horsford, Mr. Ruiz, Mr. Thanedar, …

Impact analysis is available but no clear stakeholder effects identified. View clause-level analysis →

Bill Structure & Actor Mappings

Who is "The Secretary" in each section?

Domains
Healthcare Social Welfare Technology
Actor Mappings
"the_secretary"
→ The Secretary identified in the operative section

Key Definitions

Terms defined in this bill

2 terms
"eligible individual" §H65157A20C764467189D58D28BC9BAA1F

an individual with medical debt if, for the most recent taxable year— such medical debt is equivalent to 5 percent or more of the modified adjusted gross income of such individual

"eligible individual" §HA5A1E8945B934430A69CF4CE974B342C

an individual with medical debt if, for the most recent taxable year— such medical debt is equivalent to 5 percent or more of the modified adjusted gross income of such individual

We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.

Learn more about our methodology