Title: Tribal Health Data Improvement Act of 2020
Policy area: Native Americans

Summary:
Tribal Health Data Improvement Act of 2020
This bill expands tribal access to public health care data and public health surveillance programs. It also reauthorizes through FY2025 the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and requires the CDC to take certain actions to address the collection and availability of health data for American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Specifically, the Department of Health and Human Services must, within 30 days, make available all data related to health care and public health surveillance programs and activities to the Indian Health Service, Indian tribes, and tribal epidemiology centers.
The CDC must make grants to and enter into contracts with tribes and tribal epidemiology centers for data collection and related activities. It must also provide technical assistance.
In addition, the CDC must (1) develop guidelines for state and local health agencies to improve birth and death record data for American Indians and Alaska Natives; (2) enter into cooperative agreements with tribes, tribal organizations, urban Indian organizations, and tribal epidemiology centers to address certain inaccuracies related to records for American Indians and Alaska Natives; and (3) encourage states to enter into data sharing agreement with tribes and tribal epidemiology centers to improve the quality and accuracy of health data.


[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7948 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7948

 To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to the collection 
and availability of health data with respect to Indian Tribes, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 7, 2020

Mr. Gianforte (for himself, Mr. Lujan, Mrs. Rodgers of Washington, Mr. 
 Mullin, Mr. O'Halleran, and Mr. Ruiz) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to the collection 
and availability of health data with respect to Indian Tribes, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Tribal Health Data Improvement Act 
of 2020''.

SEC. 2. COLLECTION AND AVAILABILITY OF HEALTH DATA WITH RESPECT TO 
              INDIAN TRIBES.

    (a) Data Collection.--Section 3101(a)(1) of the Public Health 
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300kk(a)(1)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``, by not later than 2 years after the 
        date of enactment of this title,''; and
            (2) in subparagraph (B), by inserting ``Tribal,'' after 
        ``State,''.
    (b) Data Reporting and Dissemination.--Section 3101(c) of the 
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300kk(c)) is amended--
            (1) by amending subparagraph (F) of paragraph (1) to read 
        as follows:
                    ``(F) the Indian Health Service, Indian Tribes, and 
                epidemiology centers;''; and
            (2) in paragraph (3), by inserting ``Indian Tribes, 
        epidemiology centers,'' after ``Federal agencies,''.
    (c) Protection and Sharing of Data.--Section 3101(e) of the Public 
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300kk(e)) is amended by adding at the end 
the following new paragraph:
            ``(3) Tribal public health authority.--Beginning not later 
        than 30 days after the date of the enactment of the Tribal 
        Health Data Improvement Act of 2020, the Secretary shall make 
        available all data collected pursuant to this title with 
        respect to health care and public health surveillance programs 
        and activities, including such programs and activities that are 
        federally supported or conducted, to--
                    ``(A) the Indian Health Service;
                    ``(B) Indian Tribes; and
                    ``(C) epidemiology centers.''.
    (d) Technical Updates.--Section 3101 of the Public Health Service 
Act (42 U.S.C. 300kk) is amended--
            (1) by striking subsections (g) and (h); and
            (2) by redesignating subsection (i) as subsection (h).
    (e) Definitions.--After executing the amendments made by subsection 
(d), section 3101 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300kk) is 
amended by inserting after subsection (f) the following new subsection:
    ``(g) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) The term `Indian Tribe' has the meaning given to the 
        term `Indian tribe' in section 4 of the Indian Self-
        Determination and Education Assistance Act.
            ``(2) The term `epidemiology center' means an epidemiology 
        center established under section 214 of the Indian Health Care 
        Improvement Act.''.
    (f) Technical Correction.--Section 3101(b) of the Public Health 
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300kk(b)) is amended by striking ``Data 
Analysis.--'' and all that follows through ``For each federally'' and 
inserting ``Data Analysis.--For each federally''.

SEC. 3. IMPROVING HEALTH STATISTICS REPORTING WITH RESPECT TO INDIAN 
              TRIBES.

    (a) Technical Aid to States and Localities.--Section 306(d) of the 
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 242k(d)) is amended by inserting 
``, Indian Tribes, and epidemiology centers'' after ``jurisdictions''.
    (b) Cooperative Health Statistics System.--Section 306(e)(3) of the 
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 242k(e)(3)) is amended by 
inserting ``, Indian Tribes, and epidemiology centers'' after ``health 
agencies''.
    (c) Federal-State Cooperation.--Section 306(f) of the Public Health 
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 242k(f)) is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``the Indian Health Service,'' before 
        ``the Departments of Commerce'';
            (2) by inserting a comma after ``the Departments of 
        Commerce and Labor'';
            (3) by inserting ``, Indian Tribes, and epidemiology 
        centers'' after ``State and local health departments and 
        agencies''; and
            (4) by striking ``he shall'' and inserting ``the Secretary 
        shall''.
    (d) Registration Area Records.--Section 306(h)(1) of the Public 
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 242k(h)(1)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``in his discretion'' and inserting ``in 
        the discretion of the Secretary''; and
            (2) by inserting ``American Indians and Alaska Natives,'' 
        before ``Hispanics''.
    (e) National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics.--Section 
306(k) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 242k(k)) is 
amended--
            (1) in paragraph (3), by striking ``, not later than 60 
        days after the date of the enactment of the Health Insurance 
        Portability and Accountability Act of 1996,'' each place it 
        appears; and
            (2) in paragraph (7), by striking ``Not later than 1 year 
        after the date of the enactment of the Health Insurance 
        Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and annually 
        thereafter, the Committee shall'' and inserting ``The Committee 
        shall, on an annual basis,''.
    (f) Grants for Assembly and Analysis of Data on Ethnic and Racial 
Populations.--Section 306(m)(4) of the Public Health Service Act (42 
U.S.C. 242k(m)(4)) is amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (A)--
                    (A) by striking ``Subject to subparagraph (B), 
                the'' and inserting ``The''; and
                    (B) by striking ``and major Hispanic subpopulation 
                groups and American Indians'' and inserting ``, major 
                Hispanic subgroups, and American Indians and Alaska 
                Natives''; and
            (2) by amending subparagraph (B) to read as follows:
    ``(B) In carrying out subparagraph (A), with respect to American 
Indians and Alaska Natives, the Secretary shall--
            ``(i) consult with Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, the 
        Tribal Technical Advisory Group of the Centers for Medicare & 
        Medicaid Services maintained under section 5006(e) of the 
        American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the Tribal 
        Advisory Committee established by the Centers for Disease 
        Control and Prevention to develop guidelines for State and 
        local health agencies to improve the quality and accuracy of 
        data with respect to the birth and death records of American 
        Indians and Alaska Natives;
            ``(ii) enter into cooperative agreements with Indian 
        Tribes, Tribal organizations, Urban Indian organizations, and 
        epidemiology centers to address misclassification and 
        undersampling of American Indians and Alaska Natives with 
        respect to--
                    ``(I) birth and death records; and
                    ``(II) health care and public health surveillance 
                systems; and
            ``(iii) encourage States to enter into data sharing 
        agreements with Indian Tribes and epidemiology centers to 
        improve the quality and accuracy of health data.''.
    (g) Definitions.--Section 306 of the Public Health Service Act (42 
U.S.C. 242k) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsection (n) as subsection (o); and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (m) the following:
    ``(n) In this section:
            ``(1) The term `Indian Tribe' has the meaning given to the 
        term `Indian tribe' in section 4 of the Indian Self-
        Determination and Education Assistance Act.
            ``(2) The term `epidemiology center' means an epidemiology 
        center established under section 214 of the Indian Health Care 
        Improvement Act.
            ``(3) The term `Urban Indian organization' has the meaning 
        given to that term in section 4 of the Indian Health Care 
        Improvement Act.''.
    (h) Authorization of Appropriations.--Section 306(o) of the Public 
Health Service Act, as redesignated by subsection (g), is amended to 
read as follows:
    ``(o)(1) To carry out this section, there is authorized to be 
appropriated $174,397,000 for each of the fiscal years 2021 through 
2025.
    ``(2) Of the amount authorized to be appropriated to carry out this 
section for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall not use more than 10 
percent for the combined costs of--
            ``(A) administration of this section; and
            ``(B) carrying out subsection (m)(2).''.
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