I 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1313

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 15, 2005

Mr. MURPHY (for himself, Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut, Mrs. KELLY, Mr. 

CANTOR, Mr. KINGSTON, Mr. BONILLA, Mrs. BONO, Mr. SHAYS, Mr. 

FITZPATRICK of Pennsylvania, Mr. BURGESS, Mr. WALSH, Mr. BRADLEY

of New Hampshire, Mr. NEUGEBAUER, Mr. GINGREY, and Mr. SHADEGG) 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 ‘‘Community Health 

5 Center Volunteer Physician Protection Act of 2005’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds as follows: 
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1 (1) As there are over 45 million individuals 

2 lacking health insurance or have inadequate health 

3 care coverage in the United States, health centers 

4 under section 330 of the Public Health Service Act, 

5 including community health centers, are increasingly 

6 called upon to provide care to the uninsured and 

7 underinsured. While low-income individuals have ac8 cess to Medicaid and the elderly and disabled have 

9 access to Medicare, such health centers offer an af10 fordable alternative to costly emergency room care. 

11 (2) These health centers are being challenged 

12 by increasing financial pressures that jeopardize 

13 their ability to provide access to health services for 

14 a number of large medically underserved popu15 lations, including the elderly, the uninsured, and 

16 lower-income individuals. 

17 (3) Granting volunteer physician liability cov18 erage through the program under section 224(g) of 

19 the Public Health Service Act (relating to the provi20 sions of title 28, United States Code, that are com21 monly referred to as the Federal Tort Claims Act) 

22 would significantly increase the number of physi23 cians available onsite at such health centers. Federal 

24 studies have concluded that by offering liability cov25 erage, such centers are able to redirect funds to re-
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1 cruit full-time physicians and provide needed health 

2 care services to their communities. 

3 (4) In addition, an increase in volunteer physi4 cians at the health centers will result in a direct im5 provement in the ability of the centers to offer qual6 ity health care services where the services are needed 

7 most. 

8 SEC. 3. HEALTH CENTERS UNDER PUBLIC HEALTH SERV9 ICE ACT; LIABILITY PROTECTIONS FOR VOL10 UNTEER PRACTITIONERS. 

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

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

13 (1) in subsection (g)(1)(A)—

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

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

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

17 and 

18 (B) in the second sentence, by inserting 

19 ‘‘and subsection (k)(4)’’ after ‘‘subject to para20 graph (5)’’; and 

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

22 and (m), by striking ‘‘employee, or contractor’’ each 

23 place such term appears and inserting ‘‘employee, 

24 volunteer practitioner, or contractor’’. 
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1 (b) APPLICABILITY; DEFINITION.—Section 224(k) of 

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

3 amended by adding at the end the following paragraph: 

4 ‘‘(4)(A) Subsections (g) through (m) apply with re5 spect to volunteer practitioners beginning with the first 

6 fiscal year for which an appropriations Act provides that 

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

8 with respect to such practitioners. 

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

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

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

12 meets the following conditions: 

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

14 a licensed clinical psychologist. 

15 ‘‘(ii) At the request of such entity, the practi16 tioner provides services to patients of the entity, at 

17 a site at which the entity operates or at a site des18 ignated by the entity. The weekly number of hours 

19 of services provided to the patients by the practi20 tioner is not a factor with respect to meeting condi21 tions under this subparagraph. 

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

23 of such services receive any compensation from such 

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

25 (including reimbursement under any insurance pol-
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1 icy or health plan, or under any Federal or State 

2 health benefits program).’’.

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