II

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1506

To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for the training of

health professions students with respect to the identification and referral

of victims of domestic violence.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

SEPTEMBER 30 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 27), 1993

Mrs. BOXER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources

A BILL

To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for

the training of health professions students with respect

to the identification and referral of victims of domestic

violence.

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 ‘‘Domestic Violence

5 Identification and Referral Act of 1993’’.
2

•S 1506 IS

1 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT, FOR CERTAIN HEALTH PROFES2 SIONS PROGRAMS, OF REQUIREMENTS RE3 GARDING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

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

5 (42 U.S.C. 295j et seq.), as added by section 102 of Public

6 Law 102-408 (106 Stat. 1994), is amended by inserting

7 after section 795 the following section:

8 ‘‘SEC. 796. REQUIREMENTS REGARDING IDENTIFICATION

9 AND REFERRAL OF VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC

10 VIOLENCE.

11 ‘‘(a) SUBMISSION OF INFORMATION.—In the case of

12 a health professions entity described in subsection (b), the

13 Secretary may make an award of a grant or contract

14 under any of parts C through F to the entity only if the

15 application submitted under section 798(f)(2) for the

16 award describes whether and to what extent the entity has

17 in effect the requirement that, as a condition of receiving

18 a degree or certificate (as applicable) from the entity, each

19 student have had significant training in carrying out the

20 following functions as a provider of health care:

21 ‘‘(1) Identifying victims of domestic violence,

22 and maintaining complete medical records that in23 clude documentation of the examination, treatment

24 given, and referrals made, and recording the location

25 and nature of the victim’s injuries.
3

•S 1506 IS

1 ‘‘(2) Examining and treating such victims,

2 within the scope of the health professional’s dis3 cipline, training, and practice, including, at a mini4 mum, providing medical advice regarding the dy5 namics and nature of domestic violence.

6 ‘‘(3) Referring the victims to public and non7 profit private entities that provide services for such

8 victims.

9 ‘‘(b) DESIGNATED HEALTH PROFESSIONS ENTI10 TIES.—A health professions entity referred to in sub11 section (a) is any entity that is a school of medicine, a

12 school of osteopathic medicine, a school of public health,

13 a graduate program in mental health practice, a school

14 of nursing (as defined in section 853), a program for the

15 training of physician assistants, or a program for the

16 training of allied health professionals.

17 ‘‘(c) LIMITATIONS ON AMOUNT OF AWARDS.—

18 ‘‘(1) DETERMINATION BY SECRETARY.—Before

19 making an award of a grant or contract under any

20 of parts C through F to a designated health profes21 sions entity for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall

22 make a determination of whether the entity, as of

23 October 1 of the fiscal year—
4

•S 1506 IS

1 ‘‘(A) meets the criterion of having in effect

2 the requirement described in subsection (a);

3 and

4 ‘‘(B) meets the criterion of providing, pur5 suant to such requirement, for the significant

6 training of the students of the entity in the

7 functions described in such subsection.

8 ‘‘(2) LIMITATIONS.—With respect to fiscal year

9 1996 and subsequent fiscal years, in the case of a

10 designated health professions entity that is deter11 mined under paragraph (1) to have failed to meet a

12 criterion described in such paragraph, the Secretary

13 may not make an award to the entity of a grant or

14 contract under a program of any of parts C through

15 F in an amount exceeding—

16 ‘‘(A) for an award under the program

17 made for the first fiscal year (after fiscal year

18 1995) for which the entity has so failed, 95 per19 cent of the amount of the most recent award

20 made before fiscal year 1996 to the entity

21 under the program (or if the entity has not pre22 viously received such an award, 95 percent of

23 the amount of the award that the Secretary

24 otherwise would have made to the entity);
5

•S 1506 IS

1 ‘‘(B) for an award under the program

2 made for the second such fiscal year, 90 per3 cent of the amount of the award for the first

4 such year;

5 ‘‘(C) for an award under the program for

6 the third such fiscal year, 85 percent of the

7 amount of the award for the second such year;

8 and

9 ‘‘(D) for an award under the program for

10 the fourth such fiscal year, 80 percent of the

11 amount of the award for the third such fiscal

12 year.

13 ‘‘(d) INELIGIBILITY.—With respect to awards of

14 grants and contracts under a program of any of parts C

15 through F, in the case of a designated health professions

16 entity that has received an award under the program for

17 a fourth fiscal year for which the entity has failed to meet

18 a criterion described in subsection (c)(1), the following ap19 plies:

20 ‘‘(1) The entity may not receive any further

21 awards under the program until the entity meets

22 each such criterion.

23 ‘‘(2) If the entity meets each such criterion and

24 receives an award under the program, but subse25 quently fails to do so for any fiscal year, the series
6

•S 1506 IS

1 of limitations described in subsection (c)(2) shall be

2 applied to further awards to the entity under the

3 program in the same manner and to the same extent

4 as the series was applied to the entity for the initial

5 4 fiscal years (after fiscal year 1995) for which the

6 entity failed to meet such a criterion.

7 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section:

8 ‘‘(1) DESIGNATED HEALTH PROFESSIONS EN9 TITY.—The term ‘designated health professions en10 tity’ means an entity described in subsection (b).

11 ‘‘(2) DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.—The term ‘domes12 tic violence’ means any intentional violence, control13 ling, or coercive behavior or pattern of behavior by

14 an individual who is currently or who was previously,

15 in an intimate or acquaintance relationship with the

16 victim. Such behavior may occur at any stage of the

17 lifecycle and may encompass single acts or a syn18 drome of actual or threatened physical injury, sexual

19 assault, rape, psychological abuse, or neglect. Such

20 term includes behavior which currently may be de21 scribed as ‘child neglect’, ‘child abuse’, ‘spousal

22 abuse’, ‘domestic violence’, ‘woman battering’, ‘part23 ner abuse’, ‘elder abuse’, and ‘date rape’.’’.

Æ