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[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3299 Introduced in House (IH)]

109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3299

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a credit against 
  income tax to physicians who serve a substantial number of medicare 
                     beneficiaries in rural areas.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 14, 2005

 Mr. Gibbons introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a credit against 
  income tax to physicians who serve a substantial number of medicare 
                     beneficiaries in rural areas.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Physician Incentives to Serve Rural 
America Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. NONREFUNDABLE CREDIT FOR PHYSICIANS SERVING MEDICARE 
              BENEFICIARIES IN CERTAIN RURAL AREAS.

    (a) In General.--Subpart A of part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to nonrefundable 
personal credits) is amended by inserting after section 25B the 
following new section:

``SEC. 25C. PHYSICIANS SERVING MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES IN CERTAIN RURAL 
              AREAS.

    ``(a) Allowance of Credit.--In the case of an individual--
            ``(1) who is a physician, and
            ``(2) who satisfies the rural area service requirement 
        during the taxable year,
there shall be allowed as a credit against the tax imposed by this 
chapter for such taxable year an amount equal to $20,000.
    ``(b) Credit Allowed Only Once.--The credit allowable by this 
section for any taxable year shall be allowed only if elected by the 
taxpayer for such year. The taxpayer may make an election under this 
section for any taxable year only if no election by the taxpayer is in 
effect under this section for any prior taxable year.
    ``(c) Rural Service Requirement.--
            ``(1) In general.--For purposes of this section, the rural 
        area service requirement is met with respect to a taxpayer if, 
        during any 2-year period ending during the taxable year, the 
        taxpayer furnished physicians' services constituting at least 
        350 physician encounters (as defined by the Secretary in 
        consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services)--
                    ``(A) which are eligible for payment under 
                medicare, and
                    ``(B) which are furnished at an office, hospital, 
                or other facility located in a rural area.
            ``(2) Rural area.--For purposes of paragraph (1), the term 
        `rural area' means any 5-digit ZIP code that is determined, 
        based on Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) codes ZIP code 
        version, which were developed by the Economic Research Service 
        in the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with the 
        Office of Rural Health Policy in the Department of Health and 
        Human Services--
                    ``(A) to have a RUCA code of 7 or greater and is 
                not classified as RUCA code 7.1, 8.1, or 10.1; or
                    ``(B) to have a RUCA code of 4, 5, or 6, whose core 
                Urban Cluster (as defined by the Bureau of the Census 
                and as having RUCA codes 4s) has a total population of 
                less than 30,000, and is not classified as RUCA code 
                4.1 or 5.1.
        The determination under the preceding sentence shall be made on 
        the basis of the most recent and available version of the RUCA 
        codes.
    ``(d) Physician; Physicians' Services.--For purposes of this 
section, the terms `physician' and `physicians' services' have the 
meaning given to such terms by subsections (r)(1) and (q), 
respectively, of section 1861 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
1395x).''
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for subpart A of 
part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 of such Code is amended by 
inserting after the item relating to section 25B the following new 
item:

``Sec. 25C. Physicians serving medicare beneficiaries in certain rural 
                            areas.''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2005, and to 
periods referred to in section 25C(c)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code 
of 1986 (as added by this section) ending after such date.
                                 <all>
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