I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3299 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a credit against 
income tax to physicians who serve a substantial number of medicare 
beneficiaries in rural areas. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 14, 2005 
Mr. GIBBONS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide 
a credit against income tax to physicians who serve a 
substantial number of medicare beneficiaries in rural 
areas. 
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 ‘‘Physician Incentives 
to Serve Rural America Act of 2005’’.
SEC. 2. NONREFUNDABLE CREDIT FOR PHYSICIANS SERV-
ING MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES IN CERTAIN 
RURAL AREAS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subpart A of part IV of sub-
chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986 (relating to nonrefundable personal credits) is 
amended by inserting after section 25B the following new 
section: 
‘‘SEC. 
25C. 
PHYSICIANS 
SERVING 
MEDICARE 
BENE-
FICIARIES IN CERTAIN RURAL AREAS. 
‘‘(a) ALLOWANCE OF CREDIT.—In the case of an in-
dividual— 
‘‘(1) who is a physician, and 
‘‘(2) who satisfies the rural area service require-
ment during the taxable year, 
there shall be allowed as a credit against the tax imposed 
by this chapter for such taxable year an amount equal to 
$20,000. 
‘‘(b) CREDIT ALLOWED ONLY ONCE.—The credit al-
lowable by this section for any taxable year shall be al-
lowed only if elected by the taxpayer for such year. The 
taxpayer may make an election under this section for any 
taxable year only if no election by the taxpayer is in effect 
under this section for any prior taxable year. 
‘‘(c) RURAL SERVICE REQUIREMENT.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this sec-
tion, the rural area service requirement is met with 
respect to a taxpayer if, during any 2-year period 
ending during the taxable year, the taxpayer fur-
nished physicians’ services constituting at least 350 
physician encounters (as defined by the Secretary in 
consultation with the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services)— 
‘‘(A) which are eligible for payment under 
medicare, and 
‘‘(B) which are furnished at an office, hos-
pital, or other facility located in a rural area. 
‘‘(2) RURAL AREA.—For purposes of paragraph 
(1), the term ‘rural area’ means any 5-digit ZIP 
code that is determined, based on Rural-Urban Com-
muting Area (RUCA) codes ZIP code version, which 
were developed by the Economic Research Service in 
the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with 
the Office of Rural Health Policy in the Department 
of Health and Human Services— 
‘‘(A) to have a RUCA code of 7 or greater 
and is not classified as RUCA code 7.1, 8.1, or 
10.1; or 
‘‘(B) to have a RUCA code of 4, 5, or 6, 
whose core Urban Cluster (as defined by the
Bureau of the Census and as having RUCA 
codes 4s) has a total population of less than 
30,000, and is not classified as RUCA code 4.1 
or 5.1. 
The determination under the preceding sentence 
shall be made on the basis of the most recent and 
available version of the RUCA codes. 
‘‘(d) PHYSICIAN; PHYSICIANS’ SERVICES.—For pur-
poses of this section, the terms ‘physician’ and ‘physicians’ 
services’ have the meaning given to such terms by sub-
sections (r)(1) and (q), respectively, of section 1861 of the 
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x).’’ 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
for subpart A of part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 
of such Code is amended by inserting after the item relat-
ing to section 25B the following new item: 
‘‘Sec. 25C. Physicians serving medicare beneficiaries in certain rural areas.’’. 
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 
December 31, 2005, and to periods referred to in section 
25C(c)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (as added 
by this section) ending after such date. 
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