I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 29 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to improve the provision of medical 
services to the homeless. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 3, 2013 
Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to improve the 
provision of medical services to the homeless. 
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 ‘‘Mobile Medical Home-
less Health Improvement Act of 2013’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The number of people experiencing home-
lessness on a single night increased by 1.1 percent 
from 643,067 in January 2009 to 649,917 in Janu-
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ary 2010. California, New York, and Florida ac-
counted for 40 percent of the total homeless popu-
lation. 
(2) A total of 79,446 family households, includ-
ing 241,951 persons in families, were homeless as of 
January 2010. Since 2009, the number of homeless 
families increased 1.2 percent, and the number of 
homeless persons in families increased 1.6 percent. 
(3) The number of people who were chronically 
homeless, persons with severe disabilities and long- 
term homeless histories, decreased 1 percent between 
2009 and 2010, from 110,917 to 109,812. 
(4) Out of those homeless individuals in a shel-
ter, 34.7 percent suffered from substance abuse and 
26.2 percent had a serious mental illness. 
(5) Mobile medical health care services can ef-
fectively reach homeless populations and provide pri-
mary care, screenings, dental care, medications, be-
havioral health care, immunizations, lab tests, case 
management, benefits assistance and assessments, 
and triage. 
(6) Mobile medical health care services can pro-
vide health care to homeless adults and children in 
urban, rural, and suburban areas. 
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(7) The average cost of a visit to a provider of 
mobile medical health care services is significantly 
below the average cost of an emergency department 
visit. Visiting a mobile medical health care service 
instead of the emergency department can result in 
a cost savings of more than $800 per visit. 
SEC. 3. IMPROVING ACCESS OF HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS 
TO MEDICAL SERVICES. 
Subpart I of Part D of title III of the Public Health 
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254b et seq.) is amended by adding 
at the end the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 330M. PARTNERSHIPS TO IMPROVE ACCESS OF 
HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS TO MEDICAL SERV-
ICES. 
‘‘(a) IN
GENERAL.—The Secretary may award 
grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to eligible en-
tities described in subsection (b) to enable such entities 
to improve access of homeless individuals to mobile med-
ical health care services. 
‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—To be eligible for a grant, 
contract, or agreement under this section an entity shall— 
‘‘(1) be a partnership consisting of— 
‘‘(A) one or more hospitals; and 
‘‘(B) one or more other local health care 
facilities, including clinics, health centers, pri-
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mary care facilities, mental health centers, 
pharmacies, or other mobile medical assets (as 
such term is defined for purposes of section 
319C–2), whether or not such a local health 
care facility is owned (either in whole or in 
part) by a partnering hospital described in sub-
paragraph (A); and 
‘‘(2) submit to the Secretary, an application at 
such time, in such manner, and containing such in-
formation as the Secretary may require. 
‘‘(c) USE OF FUNDS.—A grant, contract, or agree-
ment awarded under this section may be expended only 
for activities to increase access of homeless individuals to 
mobile medical services, including primary health services 
(as defined in section 330(b)(1)), substance abuse services 
(as defined in section 330(h)(5)), and mental health coun-
seling. 
‘‘(d) LIMITATION ON AWARDS.—A hospital or health 
care facility shall not be eligible for a grant, contract, or 
agreement under this section with respect to more than 
one partnership described in subsection (b)(1). 
‘‘(e) PREFERENCE.—In awarding a grant, contract, 
or agreement under this section, the Secretary shall give 
priority to any application from a geographic area that 
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has a comparatively high ratio of homeless individuals to 
non-homeless individuals. 
‘‘(f) SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT REQUIREMENT.— 
A grant, contract, or agreement awarded under this sec-
tion shall be expended to supplement, and not supplant, 
the expenditures of the eligible entity involved and the 
value of in kind contributions for the delivery of services 
to homeless individuals. 
‘‘(g) TEMPORARY CONTINUED PROVISION OF SERV-
ICES TO CERTAIN FORMER HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS.—If 
any grantee under this section has provided services de-
scribed in this section to a homeless individual under the 
grant, contract, or agreement awarded under this section, 
such grantee may, notwithstanding that the individual is 
no longer homeless as a result of becoming a resident in 
permanent housing, expend the amount so awarded to con-
tinue to provide such services to the individual for not 
more than 12 months. 
‘‘(h) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section: 
‘‘(1) 
HOMELESS
INDIVIDUAL.—The 
term 
‘homeless individual’ has the meaning given such 
term in section 330(h)(5). 
‘‘(2) MOBILE
MEDICAL
HEALTH
CARE
SERV-
ICES.—The term ‘mobile medical health care service’ 
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means any health care related service provided in a 
moveable vehicle or a non-permanent clinic.’’. 
Æ 
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