I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3512

To provide for the establishment of demonstration programs to address the 

shortages of health care professionals in rural areas, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 18, 2003

Mr. OTTER (for himself, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. DICKS, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Ms. DUNN, Mr. HASTINGS of Washington, Mr. SIMPSON, Mr. 

LARSEN of Washington, Mr. NETHERCUTT, Mr. BAIRD, Mr. INSLEE, Mr. 

REHBERG, Mr. YOUNG of Alaska, and Mrs. CUBIN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL

To provide for the establishment of demonstration programs 

to address the shortages of health care professionals 

in rural areas, and for other purposes.

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 ‘‘Rural Health Training 

5 Incentive Act’’. 
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1 SEC. 2. DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS TO ENCOURAGE 

2 HEALTH PROFESSIONALS TO PRACTICE IN 

3 RURAL AREAS. 

4 Part B of title VII of the Public Health Service Act 

5 (42 U.S.C. 293 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 

6 the following: 

7 ‘‘SEC. 742. DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS TO ENCOURAGE 

8 HEALTH PROFESSIONALS TO PRACTICE IN 

9 RURAL AREAS. 

10 ‘‘(a) AUTHORIZATION.—The Secretary of Health and 

11 Human Services, acting through the Director of the Office 

12 of Rural Health Policy, may award grants to 5 accredited 

13 schools of medicine or accredited schools of nursing to en14 able each such school to conduct a demonstration program 

15 to encourage more health professionals to practice in rural 

16 areas. 

17 ‘‘(b) USE OF FUNDS.—

18 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Amounts provided as a 

19 grant under subsection (a) shall be used for the fol20 lowing: 

21 ‘‘(A) Developing new programs and im22 proving existing programs for encouraging 

23 youth in rural areas to enter health professions. 

24 ‘‘(B) Strengthening and stabilizing the sys25 tem of training of health professionals that are 
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1 needed (as determined by the Secretary) in 

2 rural areas. 

3 ‘‘(C) Expanding the network of rural train4 ing tracks in health professions. 

5 ‘‘(2) FAMILY MEDICINE; NURSING.—Of the 5 

6 grants awarded under this section—

7 ‘‘(A) at least 1 shall be for a demonstra8 tion program for physicians in family medicine 

9 that includes a regional consortium with 3 or 

10 more family medicine residency programs 

11 that—

12 ‘‘(i) each have a residency rural train13 ing program; and 

14 ‘‘(ii) are located in 3 or more States; 

15 and 

16 ‘‘(B) at least 1 shall be for a demonstra17 tion program for nurses, including registered 

18 nurses, nurse anesthetists, and nurse practi19 tioners. 

20 ‘‘(c) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants under this sec21 tion, the Secretary shall give priority to accredited schools 

22 of medicine or nursing that—

23 ‘‘(1) have a residency program or clinical rota24 tion with on-site rural training of a duration of at 

25 least 2 months; and 
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1 ‘‘(2) provide a comprehensive approach to im2 proving health profession shortages in rural areas 

3 that includes recruiting students from rural areas 

4 and placing graduates in rural communities. 

5 ‘‘(d) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.—

6 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—With respect to the costs of 

7 a demonstration program to be carried out under 

8 subsection (a) by an applicant, the Secretary may 

9 not award a grant to the applicant unless the appli10 cant agrees to make available (directly or through 

11 donations from public or private entities) non-Fed12 eral contributions toward such costs in an amount 

13 that is not less than 50 percent of such costs. 

14 ‘‘(2) DETERMINATION OF AMOUNT CONTRIB15 UTED.—Non-Federal contributions required in para16 graph (1) may be in cash or in kind, fairly evalu17 ated, including plant, equipment, or services. 

18 Amounts provided by the Federal Government, or 

19 services assisted or subsidized to any significant ex20 tent by the Federal Government, may not be in21 cluded in determining the amount of such non-Fed22 eral contributions. 

23 ‘‘(e) DURATION.—The Secretary shall award each 

24 grant under this section for a period of 3 years. 

25 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section: 
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1 ‘‘(1) ACCREDITED.—The term ‘accredited’ 

2 means—

3 ‘‘(A) for a school of medicine, accredited 

4 by the Liaison Committee on Medical Edu5 cation; 

6 ‘‘(B) for a school of nursing, accredited by 

7 the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Edu8 cation; and 

9 ‘‘(C) for a school of nursing relative to a 

10 nurse anesthesia program, accredited by the 

11 Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia 

12 Educational Programs. 

13 ‘‘(2) SCHOOL OF NURSING.—The term ‘school 

14 of nursing’ has the meaning given to that term 

15 under section 801. 

16 ‘‘(g) REPORT.—Not later than 6 months after the 

17 end of the 3-year period of the demonstration programs 

18 conducted with grants under this section, the Secretary 

19 shall submit to the Congress a report containing findings 

20 and recommendations on the effectiveness of the dem21 onstration programs in addressing the shortages of health 

22 care professionals in rural areas. 
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1 ‘‘(h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

2 is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

3 $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2005 through 2007.’’.

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