I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 29 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to improve the provision of medical 

services to the homeless. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 3, 2013 

Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to improve the 

provision of medical services to the homeless. 

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 ‘‘Mobile Medical Home5 less Health Improvement Act of 2013’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) The number of people experiencing home9 lessness on a single night increased by 1.1 percent 

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1 ary 2010. California, New York, and Florida ac2 counted for 40 percent of the total homeless popu3 lation. 

4 (2) A total of 79,446 family households, includ5 ing 241,951 persons in families, were homeless as of 

6 January 2010. Since 2009, the number of homeless 

7 families increased 1.2 percent, and the number of 

8 homeless persons in families increased 1.6 percent. 

9 (3) The number of people who were chronically 

10 homeless, persons with severe disabilities and long11 term homeless histories, decreased 1 percent between 

12 2009 and 2010, from 110,917 to 109,812. 

13 (4) Out of those homeless individuals in a shel14 ter, 34.7 percent suffered from substance abuse and 

15 26.2 percent had a serious mental illness. 

16 (5) Mobile medical health care services can ef17 fectively reach homeless populations and provide pri18 mary care, screenings, dental care, medications, be19 havioral health care, immunizations, lab tests, case 

20 management, benefits assistance and assessments, 

21 and triage. 

22 (6) Mobile medical health care services can pro23 vide health care to homeless adults and children in 

24 urban, rural, and suburban areas. 


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1 (7) The average cost of a visit to a provider of 

2 mobile medical health care services is significantly 

3 below the average cost of an emergency department 

4 visit. Visiting a mobile medical health care service 

5 instead of the emergency department can result in 

6 a cost savings of more than $800 per visit. 

7 SEC. 3. IMPROVING ACCESS OF HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS 

8 TO MEDICAL SERVICES. 

9 Subpart I of Part D of title III of the Public Health 

10 Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254b et seq.) is amended by adding 

11 at the end the following new section: 

12 ‘‘SEC. 330M. PARTNERSHIPS TO IMPROVE ACCESS OF 

13 HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS TO MEDICAL SERV14 ICES. 

15 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may award 

16 grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to eligible en17 tities described in subsection (b) to enable such entities 

18 to improve access of homeless individuals to mobile med19 ical health care services. 

20 ‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—To be eligible for a grant, 

21 contract, or agreement under this section an entity shall— 

22 ‘‘(1) be a partnership consisting of— 

23 ‘‘(A) one or more hospitals; and 

24 ‘‘(B) one or more other local health care 

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1 mary care facilities, mental health centers, 

2 pharmacies, or other mobile medical assets (as 

3 such term is defined for purposes of section 

4 319C–2), whether or not such a local health 

5 care facility is owned (either in whole or in 

6 part) by a partnering hospital described in sub7 paragraph (A); and 

8 ‘‘(2) submit to the Secretary, an application at 

9 such time, in such manner, and containing such in10 formation as the Secretary may require. 

11 ‘‘(c) USE OF FUNDS.—A grant, contract, or agree12 ment awarded under this section may be expended only 

13 for activities to increase access of homeless individuals to 

14 mobile medical services, including primary health services 

15 (as defined in section 330(b)(1)), substance abuse services 

16 (as defined in section 330(h)(5)), and mental health coun17 seling. 

18 ‘‘(d) LIMITATION ON AWARDS.—A hospital or health 

19 care facility shall not be eligible for a grant, contract, or 

20 agreement under this section with respect to more than 

21 one partnership described in subsection (b)(1). 

22 ‘‘(e) PREFERENCE.—In awarding a grant, contract, 

23 or agreement under this section, the Secretary shall give 

24 priority to any application from a geographic area that 


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1 has a comparatively high ratio of homeless individuals to 

2 non-homeless individuals. 

3 ‘‘(f) SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT REQUIREMENT.— 

4 A grant, contract, or agreement awarded under this sec5 tion shall be expended to supplement, and not supplant, 

6 the expenditures of the eligible entity involved and the 

7 value of in kind contributions for the delivery of services 

8 to homeless individuals. 

9 ‘‘(g) TEMPORARY CONTINUED PROVISION OF SERV10 ICES TO CERTAIN FORMER HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS.—If 

11 any grantee under this section has provided services de12 scribed in this section to a homeless individual under the 

13 grant, contract, or agreement awarded under this section, 

14 such grantee may, notwithstanding that the individual is 

15 no longer homeless as a result of becoming a resident in 

16 permanent housing, expend the amount so awarded to con17 tinue to provide such services to the individual for not 

18 more than 12 months. 

19 ‘‘(h) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section: 

20 ‘‘(1) HOMELESS INDIVIDUAL.—The term 

21 ‘homeless individual’ has the meaning given such 

22 term in section 330(h)(5). 

23 ‘‘(2) MOBILE MEDICAL HEALTH CARE SERV24 ICES.—The term ‘mobile medical health care service’ 


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1 means any health care related service provided in a 

2 moveable vehicle or a non-permanent clinic.’’. 

Æ 


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