H.R. 2474 · 118th Congress

Ties yearly Medicare physician payment increases to the Medicare Economic Index

Official title: Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act1

Never got a floor voteMedicare payments to doctors

§1What it does

Why this matters: A plain-English description of the bill as it was voted on, written by us from the official summary and text.

Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

This bill would change the yearly update to the Medicare physician fee schedule, which sets what Medicare pays doctors for their services.2,3 Current law sets two separate conversion factors, the dollar multipliers used to turn each service's value into a payment, beginning in 2026: one for doctors in certain advanced alternative payment models, rising 0.75% a year, and one for other doctors, rising 0.25% a year.2 The bill would replace them with a single conversion factor that, beginning in 2024, would rise each year by the increase in the Medicare Economic Index, an index of yearly price changes used in setting allowed charges for physician services.2

§2Status

StatusLatest action, December 17, 2024: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.1
IntroducedApril 3, 2023
SponsorRep. Ruiz, Raul [D-CA-25]
Cosponsors172 cosponsors (47 Republican, 125 Democratic)
Official recordH.R. 2474 on Congress.gov

§3It never got a vote

Why this matters: This bill had wide support from both parties, but it never reached the House or Senate floor, so no member of Congress was ever recorded voting for or against it.

Latest action, December 17, 2024: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.1 How bills die without a vote.

2026 candidates who sponsored or cosponsored it (119)