Closing the Health Care Gap Act of 2004

Bill: 108-s-2217
Sponsor: Sen. Frist, William H. [R-TN]
Introduced: 2004-03-12 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: AIDS (Disease)
Access to health care
Administrative procedure
Asthma
Authorization
Bilingualism
Cancer
Cardiovascular diseases
Case management
Child health
Chronically ill
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Clinics
Commerce
Communicable diseases
Communication in medicine
Congress
Congressional reporting requirements
Consumer education
Continuing education
Cost of living adjustments
Crime and Law Enforcement
Curricula
Data banks
Department of Health and Human Services
Diabetes
Drugs
Economics and Public Finance
Education
Education of the disadvantaged
Educational counseling
Educational facilities
Electronic government information
Ethnic relations
Families
Federal advisory bodies
Federal aid to child health services
Federal aid to education
Federal aid to health facilities
Federal aid to research
Finance and Financial Sector
Fines (Penalties)
Fraud
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Government publicity
Graduate education
Health education
Health facilities
Health information systems
Health insurance
Health planning
Health warnings
Higher education
Hospitals
Human behavior
Human immunodeficiency viruses
Illiteracy
Income tax
Indexing (Economic policy)
Indian medical care
Insurance premiums
Internet
Land transfers
Law
Mediation
Medicaid
Medical economics
Medical education
Medical personnel
Medical records
Medical research
Medical screening
Medical statistics
Medical tests
Medically uninsured
Medicare
Minorities
Minorities in medicine
Minority education
Minority health
Names
Native Americans
Nonprofit organizations
Nursing education
Obesity
Performance measurement
Poor children
Preventive medicine
Public health personnel
Public hospitals
Public-private partnerships
Quality of care
Research grants
Right of privacy
Scholarships
Science, Technology, Communications
Scientists
Signs and symbols
Social Welfare
Standards
Student loan funds
Tax credits
Tax penalties
Tax refunds
Tax returns
Teacher education
Translating and interpreting
Vaccination
Web sites

Summary:
action_date: 2004-03-12
text: 
Closing the Health Care Gap Act of 2004 - Requires specified agencies to: (1) standardize health care quality measures across all Federal government programs; (2) standardize public reporting requirements; and (3) support data collection and reporting efforts in Federal and State agencies.
 
 Allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to improve access to health care for health care disparity populations and to support efforts to increase the enrollment and participation of eligible children in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Provides for refundable tax credits to offset the cost of health insurance.
 
Changes the name of the Office of Minority Health to the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities and changes the duties of the Office and its associated advisory committee to include health disparities as a problem to study and address.
 
 Provides grants to support: (1) health professions education for racial or ethnic minorities or health disparity populations; and (2) curricula development for cultural competency training. 
 
Requires the Director of the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities to: (1) develop and maintain an Internet clearinghouse to improve health care quality for individuals with specific cultural needs, limited English proficiency, or low functional health literacy; and (2) reduce or eliminate the duplication of efforts to translate materials.
 
 Authorizes grants or assistance for and establishes programs and projects to address: (1) the analysis of the causes and sources of health care disparities and strategies to reduce disparities; (2) disease management; (3) the effective measurement of disparities; (4) the analysis and collection of health disparity data; and (5) the recruitment of minority scientists or research professionals to the health disparity field.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2004-03-12
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text of measure as introduced: CR S2794-2802)
action_date: 2004-03-12
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S2794)
action_date: 2004-03-12
text: Introduced in Senate