I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2246
To amend the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 to prohibit the Secretary of
Health and Human Services to require the collection of data from home
health agencies furnishing services under the Medicare Program under
the OASIS data collection program from non-Medicare patients, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 16, 1999
Mr. RYUN of Kansas (for himself, Mr. MORAN of Kansas, Mr. TIAHRT, Mr.
NETHERCUTT, Mr. STEARNS, Mr. HOEKSTRA, Mr. RAHALL, Mr.
HOSTETTLER, Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania, Ms. MILLENDER-MCDON-
ALD, Mr. KOLBE, Mr. PAUL, Mrs. MYRICK, Mr. BARRETT of Nebraska,
and Mr. MARKEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on
Commerce, 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 amend the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 to prohibit
the Secretary of Health and Human Services to require
the collection of data from home health agencies fur-
nishing services under the Medicare Program under the
OASIS data collection program from non-Medicare pa-
tients, 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 ‘‘Medicare Home Health
Care Relief Act of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON OASIS DATA COLLECTION TO MEDI-
CARE PATIENT DATA.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Effective as if included in the en-
actment of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (Public Law
105–33), section 4602(e) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1395fff
note) is amended by adding at the end the following new
sentence: ‘‘Notwithstanding any provision of section 1891
of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395bbb) to the con-
trary, the Secretary may only require the submission of
additional information under this subsection with respect
to individuals who are entitled to benefits under part A,
or enrolled under part B, or both, of title XVIII of such
Act.’’.
(b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—By not later than Octo-
ber 1, 2001, the Secretary of Health and Human Services
shall submit to Congress a report on the collection of data
from home health agencies on patients of the agencies that
includes the following:
(1) Recommendations for such legislative and
administrative actions that the Secretary determines
is appropriate with respect to the collection of infor-
mation by the Secretary from medicare home health
agencies on patients of such agencies that are not
medicare beneficiaries.
(2) A determination of whether the integrity of
data collected pursuant to the Outcome and Assess-
ment Information Set (OASIS) is affected by the
personal nature of the questions posed by reason of
such set.
(3) With respect to the comprehensive assess-
ment of patients, a determination of whether the in-
tegrity of the data collected would be improved by
providing additional time for the completion of the
comprehensive assessment and the update of the
comprehensive assessment.
(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
(1) COMPREHENSIVE
ASSESSMENT
OF
PA-
TIENTS.—The term ‘‘comprehensive assessment of
patients’’ means the rule published by the Health
Care Financing Administration in the Federal Reg-
ister on January 25, 1999 (64 FR 3784), that re-
quires, as a condition of participation in the medi-
care program, a home health agency to provide a pa-
tient-specific comprehensive assessment that accu-
rately reflects the patient’s current status and that
incorporates the Outcome and Assessment Informa-
tion Set (OASIS), under section 484.55 of title 42
of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(2) COMPLETION OF THE COMPREHENSIVE AS-
SESSMENT.—The term ‘‘completion of the com-
prehensive assessment’’ means the standard for the
completion of the comprehensive assessment pro-
vided under subsection (b) of such section.
(3) UPDATE OF THE COMPREHENSIVE ASSESS-
MENT.—The term ‘‘update of the comprehensive as-
sessment’’ means the standard for an update of the
comprehensive assessment provided under subsection
(d) of such section.
(4) OUTCOME AND ASSESSMENT INFORMATION
SET.—The term ‘‘Outcome and Assessment Infor-
mation Set’’ means the standard provided under
subsection (e) of such section, relating to data items
that must be used in conducting a comprehensive as-
sessment of patients.
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