I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2073 
To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish an 
interagency coordinating committee on pulmonary hypertension to develop 
recommendations to advance research, increase awareness and education, 
and improve health and health care, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 21, 2013 
Mr. BRADY of Texas (for himself, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. KING of New York, Ms. 
NORTON, Mr. ROSKAM, Mr. COSTA, and Mr. BISHOP of New York) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy 
and Commerce 
A BILL 
To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to 
establish an interagency coordinating committee on pul-
monary hypertension to develop recommendations to ad-
vance research, increase awareness and education, and 
improve health and health care, 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 ‘‘Pulmonary Hyper-
tension Research and Diagnosis Act of 2013’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
(1) Pulmonary hypertension is a serious, debili-
tating, and often fatal progressive condition where 
the blood pressure in the lungs rises to dangerously 
high levels. In pulmonary hypertension patients, the 
walls of the arteries that take blood from the right 
side of the heart to the lungs thicken and constrict. 
As a result, the right side of the heart has to pump 
harder to move blood into the lungs, causing it to 
enlarge and ultimately fail. 
(2) In advanced stages of pulmonary hyper-
tension, the patient is able to perform only minimal 
activity and has symptoms even when resting, result-
ing in considerable disability. The disease may wors-
en to the point where the patient is completely bed-
ridden. In a matter of months, many pulmonary hy-
pertension patients have become so functionally dete-
riorated that they have lost their jobs and are de-
pendent on family and disability benefits. 
(3) Despite the importance of early diagnosis 
on prognosis, pulmonary hypertension is rarely 
picked up in a routine medical exam. Even in its 
later stages, the signs of the disease are frequently 
confused with more common conditions that affect 
the heart and lungs. Due to the fact that the aver-
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age length of time between the onset of symptoms 
and an accurate diagnosis is presently 2.8 years, 
nearly three out of four patients have advanced pul-
monary hypertension by the time they are accurately 
diagnosed. 
(4) While pulmonary hypertension remains an 
incurable condition, progress in our scientific under-
standing of the disease has led to the development 
and Food and Drug Administration approval of nine 
innovative therapies indicated to treat pulmonary 
hypertension. 
(5) Existing treatment options can significantly 
extend life and improve quality of life for patients 
with pulmonary hypertension. The effectiveness of 
pulmonary hypertension treatment options is directly 
tied to how early in the progression of the condition 
a patient can be accurately diagnosed and begin the 
correct regimen of therapies. Improved early inter-
vention will improve health outcomes for pulmonary 
hypertension patients while reducing the necessity 
for more drastic and costly treatment options, such 
as a lung or heart-lung transplant. 
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