I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6000 
To provide for criminal liability for the denial of health care coverage of 
a treatment or an individual, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 30, 2010 
Mr. GRAYSON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on 
the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, 
in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the juris-
diction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To provide for criminal liability for the denial of health 
care coverage of a treatment or an individual, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Thou Shalt Not Kill 
Thy Customers Act’’. 
SEC. 2. CRIMINAL DENIAL OF HEALTH CARE COVERAGE. 
(a) OFFENSE.—Any responsible officer or employee 
of an insurance entity that engages in a denial of coverage 
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under a health plan offered by such entity in violation of 
the provisions of title XXVII of the Public Health Service 
Act (including amendments to such Act made by the Pa-
tient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 
111–148)), and such insurance entity, shall be fined in 
accordance with title 18, United States Code, imprisoned 
for not more than one year, or both. 
(b) ENHANCED PENALTY IF DEATH RESULTS.—Any 
conduct of any responsible officer or employee or insur-
ance entity that subjects such person or entity to a fine 
or imprisonment under subsection (a) shall also be punish-
able as involuntary manslaughter under section 1112(b) 
of title 18, United States Code, if the conduct for which 
the person or entity is fined or imprisoned results in 
death. 
SEC. 3. IDENTIFICATION AND REPORT OF INSTANCES OF 
DENIAL OF HEALTH CARE TREATMENT AND 
COVERAGE. 
(a) The Inspector General of the Department of 
Health and Human Services shall establish an Internet 
Web site and a toll-free telephone number to receive re-
ports of instances of denial of health care treatment or 
coverage by insurance entities for investigation of such re-
ports. 
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(b) Such toll-free telephone number shall be operated 
in a similar manner to the toll-free telephone number de-
scribed in subsection (c)(4) of section 1804 of the Social 
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395b–2). 
(c) The Inspector General shall report to the Attor-
ney General for further investigation and prosecution all 
such instances for which the Inspector General determines 
sufficient evidence exists of a violation described in section 
2(a) by an insurance entity or responsible officer or em-
ployee of such entity. 
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of the Congress that each State should, 
through the State insurance commissioner or State official 
responsbile for the regulation of insurance in such State, 
thoroughly investigate violations of this Act by any insur-
ance entity or responsible officer or employee of such enti-
ty. 
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) The term ‘‘denial of coverage’’ means, with 
respect to a health plan offered by an insurance en-
tity— 
(A) in the case of an individual enrolled in 
or benefitting from such plan, denying coverage 
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of or care for a treatment for such individual; 
or 
(B) in the case of an individual seeking en-
rollment in or benefit from such plan, the de-
nial of coverage of or care for such individual 
under such plan. 
(2) The term ‘‘insurance entity’’ means a group 
health plan or a health insurance issuer offering 
group or individual health insurance coverage (as 
such terms are defined in section 2791 of the Public 
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300gg–91)). 
(3) The term ‘‘responsible officer or employee’’ 
means any director, officer, employee, or agent of an 
insurance entity who engages in any of the following 
conduct: 
(A) Making a decision to deny coverage or 
care. 
(B) Designing the institutional policies of 
the insurance entity that resulted in the denial 
of coverage or care. 
(C) Materially influencing the policy or de-
cision to deny coverage or care. 
(D) Any other conduct that constitutes an 
offense under this Act, including any related of-
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fense under section 2 of title 18, United States 
Code. 
Æ 
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