II 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1058 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide liability protections 

for volunteer practitioners at health centers under section 330 of such Act. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 17, 2005 

Mr. SANTORUM (for himself and Mr. WYDEN) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL

To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide liability 

protections for volunteer practitioners at health centers 

under section 330 of such Act.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Community Health 

5 Center Volunteer Physician Protection Act of 2005’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds as follows: 

8 (1) As there are over 45,000,000 individuals 

9 lacking health insurance or who have inadequate 
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1 health care coverage in the United States, health 

2 centers under section 330 of the Public Health Serv3 ice Act (42 U.S.C. 254b), including community 

4 health centers, are increasingly called upon to pro5 vide care to the uninsured and underinsured. While 

6 low-income individuals have access to Medicaid and 

7 the elderly and disabled have access to Medicare, 

8 such health centers offer an affordable alternative to 

9 costly emergency room care. 

10 (2) These health centers are being challenged 

11 by increasing financial pressures that jeopardize 

12 their ability to provide access to health services for 

13 a number of large medically underserved popu14 lations, including the elderly, the uninsured, and 

15 lower-income individuals. 

16 (3) Granting volunteer physician liability cov17 erage through the program under section 224(g) of 

18 the Public Health Service Act (relating to the provi19 sions of title 28, United States Code, that are com20 monly referred to as the Federal Tort Claims Act) 

21 (42 U.S.C. 233(g)) would significantly increase the 

22 number of physicians available onsite at such health 

23 centers. Federal studies have concluded that by of24 fering liability coverage, such centers are able to re25 direct funds to recruit full-time physicians and pro-
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1 vide needed health care services to their commu2 nities. 

3 (4) In addition, an increase in volunteer physi4 cians at the health centers will result in a direct im5 provement in the ability of the centers to offer qual6 ity health care services where the services are needed 

7 most. 

8 SEC. 3. HEALTH CENTERS UNDER PUBLIC HEALTH SERV9 ICE ACT; LIABILITY PROTECTIONS FOR VOL10 UNTEER PRACTITIONERS. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 224 of the Public Health 

12 Service Act (42 U.S.C. 233) is amended— 

13 (1) in subsection (g)(1)(A)— 

14 (A) in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘or 

15 employee’’ and inserting ‘‘employee, or (subject 

16 to subsection (k)(4)) volunteer practitioner’’; 

17 and 

18 (B) in the second sentence, by inserting 

19 ‘‘and subsection (k)(4)’’ after ‘‘subject to para20 graph (5)’’; and 

21 (2) in each of subsections (g), (i), (j), (k), (l), 

22 and (m), by striking ‘‘employee, or contractor’’ each 

23 place such term appears and inserting ‘‘employee, 

24 volunteer practitioner, or contractor’’. 
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1 (b) APPLICABILITY; DEFINITION.—Section 224(k) of 

2 the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 233(k)) is 

3 amended by adding at the end the following paragraph: 

4 ‘‘(4)(A) Subsections (g) through (m) apply with re5 spect to volunteer practitioners beginning with the first 

6 fiscal year for which an appropriations Act provides that 

7 amounts in the fund under paragraph (2) are available 

8 with respect to such practitioners. 

9 ‘‘(B) For purposes of subsections (g) through (m), 

10 the term ‘volunteer practitioner’ means a practitioner who, 

11 with respect to an entity described in subsection (g)(4), 

12 meets the following conditions: 

13 ‘‘(i) The practitioner is a licensed physician or 

14 a licensed clinical psychologist. 

15 ‘‘(ii) At the request of such entity, the practi16 tioner provides services to patients of the entity, at 

17 a site at which the entity operates or at a site des18 ignated by the entity. The weekly number of hours 

19 of services provided to the patients by the practi20 tioner is not a factor with respect to meeting condi21 tions under this subparagraph. 

22 ‘‘(iii) The practitioner does not for the provision 

23 of such services receive any compensation from such 

24 patients, from the entity, or from third-party payors 

25 (including reimbursement under any insurance pol-
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1 icy or health plan, or under any Federal or State 

2 health benefits program).’’.

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