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[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1926 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1926

          To ensure access to screening mammography services.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 4, 2015

  Ms. Mikulski (for herself and Ms. Ayotte) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
          To ensure access to screening mammography services.

    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 ``Protecting Access to Lifesaving 
Screenings Act'' or the ``PALS Act''.

SEC. 2. ENSURING ACCESS TO SCREENING MAMMOGRAPHY SERVICES.

    (a) In General.--Effective during the period beginning on the date 
of enactment of this Act and ending January 1, 2018, any provision of 
law that refers (including through cross-reference to another provision 
of law) to the current recommendations of the United States Preventive 
Services Task Force with respect to breast cancer screening, 
mammography, and prevention shall be administered by the Secretary 
involved as if--
            (1) such reference to such current recommendations were a 
        reference to the recommendations of such Task Force with 
        respect to breast cancer screening, mammography, and prevention 
        last issued before 2009; and
            (2) such recommendations last issued before 2009 applied to 
        any screening mammography modality under section 1861(jj) of 
        the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(jj)).
    (b) Codification of Current Medicare Coverage and Payment 
Policies.--
            (1) Definition.--Section 1861(jj) of the Social Security 
        Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(jj)) is amended by inserting ``, including 
        any digital modality of such a procedure,'' after ``radiologic 
        procedure''.
            (2) Coinsurance.--Section 1833(a)(1)(Y) of such Act (42 
        U.S.C. 1395l(a)(1)(Y)) is amended by inserting ``or are 
        services described in section 1861(jj)'' after ``population''.
            (3) Frequency.--Section 1834(c)(2)(B)(ii) of such Act (42 
        U.S.C. 1395m(c)(2)(B)(ii)) is amended by inserting before the 
        period at the end the following: ``for women described only in 
        clause (i) or (ii) of subparagraph (A)''.
    (c) GAO Study and Report.--
            (1) Study.--The Comptroller General of the United States 
        shall conduct a study on the methodologies and processes by 
        which the United States Preventive Services Task Force develops 
        recommendations regarding preventive services, including the 
        transparency of such methodologies and processes, the 
        engagement of stakeholders in such methodologies and processes, 
        the responses of the Task Force to comments from stakeholders 
        regarding draft research plans, draft evidence reviews, and 
        draft recommendations, and the propriety of the data and other 
        information on which the Task Force relies in developing a 
        recommendation regarding a preventive service.
            (2) Report.--The Comptroller General of the United States 
        shall submit to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and 
        to the appropriate committees of Congress, not later than 2 
        years after the date of the enactment of this Act, a report on 
        the results of the study conducted under paragraph (1), 
        including any recommendations for administrative or legislative 
        changes the Comptroller General determines necessary or 
        appropriate to improve the methodologies and processes by which 
        the United States Preventive Services Task Force develops 
        recommendations regarding preventive services.
                                 <all>
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