I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3875 
To improve access to emergency medical services through medical liability 
reform and additional Medicare payments. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 22, 2005 
Mr. GORDON (for himself and Mr. SESSIONS) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in 
addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To improve access to emergency medical services through 
medical liability reform and additional Medicare payments. 
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 ‘‘Access to Emergency 
Medical Services Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
(1) Emergency medical care is an essential ele-
ment of the health care safety net.
(2) Emergency departments are critical in ad-
dressing public health issues such as emerging and 
reemerging infections diseases, bioterrorism, and 
mass casualty incidences. 
(3) The Emergency Medical Treatment and 
Labor Act (‘‘EMTALA’’) requires that all patients 
who come to an emergency department be evaluated 
and their emergency medical conditions be stabilized, 
regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. 
(4) The emergency department is a critical site 
of service for indigent patients who otherwise do not 
have access to health care services. 
(5) Estimates indicate that 45,000,000 Ameri-
cans lack health coverage of any kind for an entire 
year and that tens of millions more Americans go 
without health coverage for shorter periods of time. 
(6) Nationally, more than 35 percent of emer-
gency department patients are uninsured or are 
Medicaid or SCHIP enrollees. 
(7) As a key part of the health care safety net, 
emergency departments in many of the Nation’s 
communities are under strain. 
(8) Strain on emergency departments is due to 
multiple factors, including the shortage of nurses, a 
decrease in the total number of community hospitals,
and high levels of bad debt incurred as a result of 
providing care to indigent patients. 
(9) Current trends indicate that maintaining 
access to high-quality emergency care across the na-
tion is at risk. 
(10) Sufficient resources must be allocated to 
emergency care providers to ensure that every Amer-
ican has access to high-quality emergency care. 
(11) The Medicare program provides dispropor-
tionate share payments for inpatient services to hos-
pitals that serve a disproportionate number of low 
income and indigent patients. 
(12) Providing additional payments for care 
provided in an emergency department is critical in 
ensuring beneficiaries have access to high quality 
emergency services and specialist care in an emer-
gency department. 
TITLE I—MEDICAL LIABILITY 
REFORMS 
SEC. 101. CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY. 
The constitutional authority upon which this title 
rests is the power of the Congress to provide for the gen-
eral welfare, to regulate commerce, and to make all laws 
which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into exe-
cution Federal powers, as enumerated in section 8 of arti-
cle I of the Constitution of the United States. 
SEC. 102. PROTECTION AGAINST LEGAL LIABILITY FOR 
EMERGENCY AND RELATED SERVICES FUR-
NISHED TO UNINSURED INDIVIDUALS. 
Section 224(g) of the Public Health Service Act (42 
U.S.C. 233(g)) is amended— 
(1) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘An entity’’ 
and inserting in lieu thereof ‘‘Subject to paragraph 
(6), an entity’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(6)(A) For purposes of this section— 
‘‘(i) an entity described in subparagraph (B) 
shall be considered to be an entity described in para-
graph (4); and 
‘‘(ii) the provisions of this section shall apply to 
an entity described in subparagraph (B) in the same 
manner as such provisions apply to an entity de-
scribed in paragraph (4), except that— 
‘‘(I) notwithstanding paragraph (1)(B), the 
deeming of any entity described in subpara-
graph (B), or of an officer, governing board 
member, employee, or contractor of such an en-
tity, to be an employee of the Public Health 
Service for purposes of this section shall apply