I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3317
To provide grants to strengthen State and local health care systems’ response
to domestic violence by building the capacity of health care professionals
and staff to identify, address, and prevent domestic violence.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 10, 1999
Mrs. LOWEY (for herself, and Mrs. MORELLA) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce
A BILL
To provide grants to strengthen State and local health care
systems’ response to domestic violence by building the
capacity of health care professionals and staff to identify,
address, and prevent domestic violence.
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 ‘‘Rx for Abuse Act’’.
SEC 2. GRANTS TO ADDRESS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN
HEALTH CARE SETTINGS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Family Violence Prevention
and Services Act (42 U.S.C. 10401 et seq.) is amended
by adding at the end the following:
‘‘SEC. 319. GRANTS TO ADDRESS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN
HEALTH CARE SETTINGS.
‘‘(a) GENERAL PURPOSE GRANTS.—The Secretary,
acting through the Office of Family Violence and Preven-
tion Services of the Administration for Children and Fam-
ilies, may award grants to eligible State and local entities
to strengthen the State and local health care system’s re-
sponse to domestic violence by building the capacity of
health care professionals and staff to identify, address,
and prevent domestic violence.
‘‘(b) STATE GRANTS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may award
grants under subsection (a) to entities eligible under
paragraph (2) for the conduct of not to exceed 10
Statewide programs for the design and implementa-
tion of statewide strategies to enable health care
workers to improve the health care system’s re-
sponse to treatment and prevention of domestic vio-
lence as provided for in subsection (d).
‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—To be eligible to re-
ceive a grant under paragraph (1) an entity shall—
‘‘(A) be a State health department, non-
profit State domestic violence coalition, State
professional medical society, State health pro-
fessional association, or other nonprofit or
State entity with a history of effective work in
the field of domestic violence;
‘‘(B) demonstrate to the Secretary that
such entity is representing a team of organiza-
tions and agencies working collaboratively to
strengthen the health care system’s response to
domestic violence and that such team includes
representatives from domestic violence and
health care organizations; and
‘‘(C) prepare and submit to the Secretary
an application at such time, in such manner,
and containing such information as the Sec-
retary may require.
‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—The Secretary may not
award a grant to a State health department under
paragraph (1) unless the State health department
can certify that State laws, policies, and practices do
not require health care professionals and staff to re-
port incidents of domestic violence against adult vic-
tims to law enforcement officials without the pa-
tient’s consent. This prohibition does not apply to
the anonymous reporting or reporting of de-identi-
fied information for the purposes of data collection
and analysis.
‘‘(4) TERM AND AMOUNT.—A grant under this
section shall be for a term of up to 4 years and for
an amount not to exceed $2,000,000 per year.
‘‘(c) LOCAL DEMONSTRATION GRANTS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may award
grants under subsection (a) to entities eligible under
paragraph (2) for the conduct of not to exceed 10
demonstration projects for the design and implemen-
tation of a strategy to improve the response of local
health care professionals and staff to the treatment
and prevention of domestic violence.
‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—To be eligible to re-
ceive a grant under paragraph (1) an entity shall—
‘‘(A) be a local health department, tribal
health board, or tribal health organization, local
or tribal nonprofit domestic violence organiza-
tion or service provider, local or tribal profes-
sional medical society or health professional as-
sociation, local nonprofit health care delivery
system or nonprofit hospital, or other nonprofit,
tribal nonprofit, tribal government, or local gov-
ernment entity that has a history of effective
work in the field of domestic violence;
‘‘(B) demonstrate to the Secretary that
such entity is representing a team of organiza-
tions working collaboratively to strengthen the
health care system’s response to domestic vio-
lence and that such team includes representa-
tives from domestic violence and health care or-
ganizations; and
‘‘(C) prepare and submit to the Secretary
an application at such time, in such manner,
and containing such information as the Sec-
retary may require.
‘‘(3) TERM AND AMOUNT.—A grant under this
section shall be for a term of up to 2 years and for
an amount not to exceed $100,000 per year.
‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.—Amounts provided under a
grant under this section shall be used to design and imple-
ment comprehensive statewide and local strategies to im-
prove the health care response to domestic violence in hos-
pitals, clinics, managed care settings, emergency medical
services, and other health care settings. Such a strategy
shall include—
‘‘(1) the development, implementation, dissemi-
nation, and evaluation of policies and procedures to
guide health care professionals and staff responding
to domestic violence;
‘‘(2) the provision of training and follow-up
technical assistance to health care professionals and
staff to screen for domestic violence, and then to ap-
propriately assess, record in medical records, treat,
and refer patients who are victims of domestic vio-
lence to domestic violence services;
‘‘(3) the implementation of practice guidelines
for routine screening and recording mechanisms to
identify and document domestic violence, including
guidelines to ensure that the patient is fully in-
formed of any State laws regarding reporting domes-
tic violence crimes and potential risks to the patient
before screening is performed, and the institutional-
ization of such guidelines and mechanisms in quality
improvement measurements such as patient record
reviews, staff interviews, patient surveys, or other
methods used to evaluate and enhance staff compli-
ance with protocols;
‘‘(4) the development and implementation of
policies, protocols, and strategies to ensure that the
health and personal information of a patient who
identifies or is identified as a victim of abuse is col-