I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1745 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 26, 2009 

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania (for himself and Mr. GENE GREEN of 

Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Energy and Commerce 

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 ‘‘Family Health Care 

5 Accessibility Act of 2009’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds as follows: 

8 (1) Community Health Centers (CHCs) are 

9 nonprofit, community supported health care facilities 


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1 providing primary and preventive health care serv2 ices to over 15,000,000 low-income, underinsured, 

3 and uninsured families. 

4 (2) Nearly 70 percent of CHC patients have 

5 family incomes at or below poverty ($15,000 annual 

6 income for a family of three). In addition, nearly 40 

7 percent of CHC patients are uninsured. 

8 (3) For many patients, CHCs are the only 

9 source of health care services available. While the 

10 number of uninsured patients at CHCs is rapidly 

11 growing—from around 3,900,000 in 1998 to over 

12 5,900,000 today—the number of physicians available 

13 to treat these patients is decreasing. 

14 (4) There is a critical shortage of physicians 

15 available at CHCs to meet the health care needs of 

16 the uninsured and underinsured. The Journal of the 

17 American Medical Association reports a 13-percent 

18 vacancy rate for family physicians, a 9-percent va19 cancy rate for internists, a 20-percent vacancy rate 

20 for OB–GYNs and a 22-percent vacancy rate for 

21 psychiatrists. 

22 (5) Physicians hired by CHCs are covered by 

23 the Federal Tort Claims Act for medical liability 

24 costs. However, physicians who wish to volunteer at 


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1 CHCs are not covered by the Federal Tort Claims 

2 Act. 

3 (6) CHCs have limited resources to meet the 

4 current and future needs of the uninsured and 

5 underinsured. Physicians are willing to volunteer at 

6 CHCs, however, they are dissuaded from doing so 

7 because of the cost of medical liability insurance. 

8 Extending Federal Tort Claims Act coverage to vol9 unteer physicians would result in more patients 

10 being served at a lower cost at CHCs. 

11 SEC. 3. HEALTH CENTERS UNDER PUBLIC HEALTH SERV12 ICE ACT; LIABILITY PROTECTIONS FOR VOL13 UNTEER PRACTITIONERS. 

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

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

16 (1) in subsection (g)(1)(A)— 

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

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

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

20 and 

21 (B) in the second sentence, by inserting 

22 ‘‘and subsection (k)(4)’’ after ‘‘subject to para23 graph (5)’’; and 

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

25 and (m)— 


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1 (A) by striking the term ‘‘employee, or 

2 contractor’’ each place such term appears and 

3 inserting ‘‘employee, volunteer practitioner, or 

4 contractor’’; 

5 (B) by striking the term ‘‘employee, and 

6 contractor’’ each place such term appears and 

7 inserting ‘‘employee, volunteer practitioner, and 

8 contractor’’; 

9 (C) by striking the term ‘‘employee, or any 

10 contractor’’ each place such term appears and 

11 inserting ‘‘employee, volunteer practitioner, or 

12 contractor’’; and 

13 (D) by striking the term ‘‘employees, or 

14 contractors’’ each place such term appears and 

15 inserting ‘‘employees, volunteer practitioners, or 

16 contractors’’. 

17 (b) APPLICABILITY; DEFINITION.—Section 224(k) of 

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

19 amended by adding at the end the following paragraph: 

20 ‘‘(4)(A) Subsections (g) through (m) apply with re21 spect to volunteer practitioners beginning with the first 

22 fiscal year for which an appropriations Act provides that 

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

24 with respect to such practitioners. 


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

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

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

4 meets the following conditions: 

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

6 a licensed clinical psychologist. 

7 ‘‘(ii) At the request of such entity, the practi8 tioner provides services to patients of the entity, at 

9 a site at which the entity operates or at a site des10 ignated by the entity. The weekly number of hours 

11 of services provided to the patients by the practi12 tioner is not a factor with respect to meeting condi13 tions under this subparagraph. 

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

15 of such services receive any compensation from such 

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

17 (including reimbursement under any insurance pol18 icy or health plan, or under any Federal or State 

19 health benefits program).’’. 

Æ 


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