jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Bill 113-S-2095 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security

Veterans Health Care Access Received Closer to Home Act of 2014 - Expresses the sense of Congress in support of veteran-centric health care coordination between the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and community providers, as well as cost-effective VA purchase of veterans' care from the private sector.

Amends the Veterans' Mental Health and Other Care Improvements Act of 2008 to reauthorize a VA pilot program of contract care authority within specified Veterans Integrated Service Networks for the health care needs of veterans in highly rural areas who are enrolled in the VA annual patient enrollment system. Requires: (1) that medical appointments for veterans, under the pilot program, occur during the 30-day period beginning on the date that is 15 days after the appointment is requested, and (2) the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to ensure that eligible veterans are informed of the program.
Bill 113-S-2187 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Extension Act of 2014 - Amends the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, as amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, to extend the rural community hospital demonstration program from five through 10 years.
Bill 113-S-2316 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security

Requires the Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to submit to Congress within 180 days after enactment of this Act a report on wait times for veterans seeking medical appointments and treatment from the VA, which shall include: (1) information on wait times throughout the United States, and (2) a determination by the Inspector General as to whether such wait times have been prolonged by VA employees without a valid medical or administrative reason.

Prohibits the VA Secretary from closing any VA medical facility, or from using any VA funds to prepare any environment impact statement related to such closure, before such report is submitted, or after the report is submitted if the Inspector General determines that wait times have been prolonged by VA employees without a valid reason, unless the Secretary certifies that such closure will not:

 increase the wait times for veterans in the catchment area of such medical facility; decrease the quality of care provided to such veterans; impede the access of such veterans to specialized health care services or to VA residential rehabilitation treatment programs and other inpatient care; increase the distance required to be traveled by such veterans to receive care; or impede the access to medical care for such veterans that are members of Indian tribes. Terminates such prohibition when the Inspector General certifies that such wait times are not being prolonged by VA employees without a valid reason.
Bill 113-S-2353 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2014 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require each Medicare participating hospital to implement a hospital-wide staffing plan for nursing services furnished in the hospital.

Requires the plan to require that an appropriate number of registered nurses provide direct patient care in each unit and on each shift of the hospital to ensure staffing levels that: (1) address the unique characteristics of the patients and hospital units; and (2) result in the delivery of safe, quality patient care consistent with specified requirements.

Requires each participating hospital to establish a hospital nurse staffing committee which shall implement such plan.

Specifies civil monetary and other penalties for violation of the requirements of this Act.

Sets forth whistleblower protections against discrimination and retaliation involving patients or employees of the hospital for their grievances, complaints, or involvement in investigations relating to such plan.
Bill 113-S-2428 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security

Transparency in Cost of Veterans Care Act of 2014 - Requires the estimate included in the prospectus accompanying a request to Congress by the President or the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) for funding for a major medical facility project or lease to identify the additional costs of providing hospital care or medical services resulting from the temporary displacement of clinical space required for the project, including the costs of: (1) contracting with a non-VA facility to furnish hospital care or medical services, (2) beneficiary travel, and (3) the lease or purchase of a temporary or mobile medical facility.
Bill 113-S-2501 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Hospital Readmissions Program Accuracy and Accountability Act of 2014 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act, with respect to the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), in determining a hospital's excess readmission ratio for purposes of making payments for discharges starting in FY2016, to risk adjust readmissions to account for patient socioeconomic status.
Bill 113-S-2553 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 or the IMPACT Act of 2014 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to: (1) require post-acute care (PAC) providers to report standardized patient assessment data, data on quality measures, and data on resource use and other measures; (2) require the data to be interoperable to allow for its exchange among PAC and other providers to give them access to longitudinal information so as to facilitate coordinated care and improve Medicare beneficiary outcomes; and (3) modify PAC assessment instruments applicable to PAC providers for the submission of standardized patient assessment data on such providers and enable assessment data comparison across all such providers.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) provide confidential feedback reports to PAC providers on their performance with respect to required measures; and (2) arrange for public reporting of PAC provider performance on quality, resource use, and other measures.

Directs the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MEDPAC) to: (1) evaluate and recommend to Congress features of PAC payment systems that establish, or a unified PAC payment system that establishes, payment rates according to characteristics of individuals instead of according to the PAC setting where the Medicare beneficiary involved is treated; and (2) recommend to Congress a technical prototype for a PAC prospective payment system.

Directs the Secretary to reduce by 2% the update to the market basket percentage for skilled nursing facilities which do not report assessment and quality data.

Directs the Secretary to study: (1) the effect of individuals' socioeconomic status on quality, resource use, and other measures for individuals under the Medicare program; and (2) the impact on such measures of specified risk factors.
Bill 113-S-2783 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act of 2014 or the VBID for Better Care Act of 2014 - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a three-year demonstration program to test the use of value-based insurance design methodologies under the eligible Medicare plans offered by Medicare Advantage organizations under part C (Medicare+Choice) of title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act.

Defines "value-based insurance design methodology" as one for identifying specific prescription medications, and clinical services reimbursable under Medicare, for which copayments, coinsurance, or both should be reduced or eliminated because of the high-value and effectiveness of these medications and services for specific chronic clinical conditions (as approved by the Secretary).

Directs the Secretary to expand the demonstration program to implement, on a permanent basis, those components beneficial to Medicare beneficiaries and the Medicare program, unless a required evaluation of the program states that it: (1) increases expenditures under Medicare with respect to participating beneficiaries, or (2) decreases the quality of health care services furnished to such beneficiaries.
Bill 113-S-2980 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Ensuring Equal Access to Treatments Act of 2014 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act, with respect to the prospective payment system for hospital outpatient department (OPD) services, to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create certain additional groups of covered OPD services that classify separately, from those that do not utilize such a drug, procedures that utilize a drug (other than contrast agents and diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals) that both has a cost above the drug packaging threshold and functions as a supply when used in a diagnostic test or procedure.
Bill 114-HR-169 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Critical Access Hospital Relief Act of 2015

 Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to repeal the 96-hour physician certification requirement for inpatient critical access hospital services under which a physician must certify that a patient may reasonably be expected to be discharged or transferred to a hospital within 96 hours after admission to the critical access hospital.
Bill 114-HR-170 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Rural Health Care Provider Relief Act of 2015

Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, during a specified extension period, to extend the therapy supervision nonenforcement instruction (the enforcement instruction on supervision requirements for outpatient therapeutic services in critical access and small rural hospitals, as extended for calendar year 2013 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and through calendar year 2014 by Public Law 113-198).

Directs the Secretary to study the impact (including the economic impact and the impact upon hospital staffing needs, if any) on critical access hospitals and small rural hospitals of not extending the therapy supervision nonenforcement instruction.
Bill 114-HR-593 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security

Aurora VA Hospital Financing and Construction Reform Act of 2015

Authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to carry out the Aurora medical facility project to replace the VA Medical Center in Denver, Colorado.

Requires VA to enter into an agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers giving the Corps the authority to perform the project, design, contract, and construction management necessary to complete such project.
Bill 114-HR-647 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Access to Life-Saving Trauma Care for All Americans Act

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize grants for certain trauma centers and grants to states for trauma centers through FY2020. The categorization of certain trauma centers is revised.

(Sec. 3) The Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response is given the authority to administer these grants.
Bill 114-HR-648 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Trauma Systems and Regionalization of Emergency Care Reauthorization Act

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize trauma care programs through FY2020.

(Sec. 3) Grants for pilot projects of innovative models of emergency care and trauma systems can be allocated up to half of the remaining funds for trauma care after allocations for improvement of emergency medical services in rural areas and administrative purposes.

State plans for emergency medical services are required to include the national standards and requirements of the American Burn Association for verified burn centers.

The Department of Health and Human Services must update the model plan for designation of trauma centers and for triage, transfer, and transportation policies, taking into account standards from the American Burn Association.
Bill 114-HR-663 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Rural Hospital Access Act of 2015

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to make permanent the Medicare-dependent, small rural subsection (d) hospital program and increased payments under the Medicare low-volume hospital program.

 (Generally, a subsection [d] hospital is an acute care hospital, particularly one that receives payments under Medicare's inpatient prospective payment system [IPPS] when providing covered inpatient services to eligible beneficiaries.)
Bill 114-HR-672 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Extension Act of 2015

Amends the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, as amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, to extend the period of the rural community hospital demonstration program from 5 to 10 years.
Bill 114-HR-763 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security

Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out a two-year pilot program under which: (1) eligible veterans may elect to receive hospital care and services at non-Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities, and (2) the Secretary shall reimburse such facilities for the cost of such care and services.

Defines an "eligible veteran" as a veteran who: (1) is enrolled in the VA's patient enrollment system, and (2) resides in a geographic area selected by the Secretary. Directs the Secretary to select: (1) one geographic area within each Veterans Integrated Service Network, and (2) NJ-2 as the geographic area for participation in the pilot program for Veterans Integrated Service Network 4.

Requires the Secretary to: (1) issue a unique identification card to each eligible veteran who elects to receive hospital care and medical services at non-VA facilities under the pilot program, and (2) take steps to ensure that such veterans receive such care and services at such non-VA facilities.
Bill 114-HR-776 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Stark Administrative Simplification Act of 2015 

 Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to prescribe a single civil monetary penalty as an alternative sanction to those already established for compensation arrangements between a physician (or an immediate family member) and a person or entity that is in violation of the limitation on certain physician referrals (Stark Law) solely due to technical noncompliance.

(The Stark law, or Stark Rule, prohibits physician referrals of certain health services for Medicare and Medicaid patients to a specified entity if the physician, or an immediate family member, has a financial relationship with that entity.)

Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to accept the voluntary disclosure of a technically noncomplaint compensation arrangement by a person or entity in violation of the Stark Law under certain circumstances.
Bill 114-HR-795 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Medicare Payment Rate Disclosure Act of 2015

 Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make publicly available on the official Medicare Internet site during a specified initial period: (1) Medicare payment rates for frequently reimbursed hospital inpatient and outpatient procedures and services, as well as for physicians' services; and (2) the period for which payment rates are applicable. Requires posting also after the initial period of an expanded selection of such items.

Directs the Secretary to select at least 30 procedures and services for the basic posting and at least 100 procedures and services for the expanded posting.
Bill 114-HR-876 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

(This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the House on March 16, 2015. The summary of that version is repeated here.) Notice of Observation Treatment and Implication for Care Eligibility Act or the NOTICE Act 

(Sec. 2) This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require a hospital or critical access hospital with an agreement with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to give each individual who receives observation services as an outpatient for more than 24 hours an adequate oral and written notification within 36 hours after beginning to receive them which:

 explains the individual's status as an outpatient and not as an inpatient and the reasons why; explains the implications of that status on services furnished (including those furnished as an inpatient), in particular the implications for cost-sharing requirements and subsequent coverage eligibility for services furnished by a skilled nursing facility; includes appropriate additional information; is written and formatted using plain language and made available in appropriate languages; and is signed by the individual or a person acting on the individual's behalf (representative) to acknowledge receipt of the notification, or if the individual or representative refuses to sign, the written notification is signed by the hospital staff who presented it.
Bill 114-HR-887 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Electronic Health Fairness Act of 2015 

(Sec. 2) Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to prohibit for a payment year after 2015 any patient encounter of an eligible professional occurring at an ambulatory surgical center (ASC) from being treated as such a patient encounter in determining whether an eligible professional qualifies as a meaningful electronic health record (EHR) user.

Terminates this prohibition three years after the Secretary of Health and Human Services determines, through notice and comment rulemaking, that certified EHR technology is applicable to the ASC setting.
Bill 114-HR-1178 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Ensuring Equal Access to Treatments Act of 2015

 Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act, with respect to the prospective payment system for hospital outpatient department (OPD) services, to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to create certain additional groups of covered OPD services that classify separately, from those that do not utilize such a drug, procedures that utilize a drug (other than contrast agents, diagnostic radiopharmaceutical, or anesthesia drugs) that both has a cost above the drug packaging threshold and functions as a supply when used in a diagnostic test or procedure.
Bill 114-HR-1294 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security

Meeting the Inpatient Health Care Needs of Far South Texas Veterans Act of 2015

Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA): (1) to ensure that the South Texas Veterans Affairs Health Care Center in Harlingen, Texas, includes a full-service VA inpatient health care facility; and (2) if needed, to modify the existing facility to meet this requirement.
Bill 114-HR-1319 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security

Ask Veterans Act

Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to contract with an experienced non-government entity to conduct an annual survey, over a five-year period, to determine the experiences of veterans in obtaining hospital care and medical services at each VA medical facility.

Requires those surveys to include questions relating to:

 a veteran's ability to obtain hospital care and medical services at the facility in a timely manner, the time between the date the veteran requests an appointment and the date the appointment is scheduled, the frequency with which scheduled appointments are cancelled, and the quality of hospital care or medical services received. Directs the Secretary to make the results of the surveys publicly available on the VA's Internet website.
Bill 114-HR-1343 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Establishing Beneficiary Equity in the Hospital Readmission Program Act of 2015

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSAct) with respect to the hospital readmissions reduction program under the inpatient (hospital) prospective payment system (IPPS).

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in determining a hospital's excess readmission ratio for purposes of making payments for discharges occurring during FY2016-FY2017, is required to make a risk adjustment to the ratio that takes into account both: (1) a hospital's proportion of inpatients who are full-benefit dual eligible individuals (eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid under SSAct title XIX), and (2) the socioeconomic status of patients served by the hospital.

The Secretary must base the risk adjustment under the readmission program for subsequent fiscal years on specified reports required by the Improving Medicare Post Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 as well as a report the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission shall submit on the appropriateness of using a threshold of 30 days for readmissions under the program. The Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services must then incorporate report recommendations in carrying out risk adjustments for discharges occurring in such fiscal years in order to ensure that the most vulnerable populations are not unfairly penalized by the program.

The Secretary shall consider the use of V or other International Classification of Diseases-related codes for potential exclusion of noncompliant patient cases when promulgating related regulations for FY2017.

The Secretary must: (1) assess whether to exclude from the calculation of excess readmissions any patients whose clinical conditions or diagnoses may require frequent hospitalizations; then (2) exclude, starting in FY2018, any relevant clinical conditions identified in the assessment recommendations when determining a hospital's publicly reported readmission rate and excess readmissions ratio.

The Secretary is directed to make a payment adjustment to subsection (d) hospitals necessary to ensure that the implementation of this Act does not result in any increase in aggregate expenditures under the IPPS.

(Generally, a subsection (d) hospital is an acute care hospital, particularly one that receives payment under the IPPS when providing covered inpatient services to eligible beneficiaries.)
Bill 114-HR-1453 — Health / Medical Facilities
Subject: Health

Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality and Access Act of 2015

 Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require alignment of updates for ambulatory surgical center (ASC) services under a revised prospective payment system (PPS) with updates for hospital outpatient department (OPD) services.

Revises requirements for the reporting and applying of quality measure data by ASCs and hospital OPDs.

Revises requirements for the composition of the expert outside advisory panel the Secretary of Health and Human Services is required to consult during the annual review of the clinical integrity of the groups and payment weights in the PPS for OPD services. Requires the panel to include suppliers subject to the PPS as well as at least one ASC representative.

Requires the Secretary, when excluding from a final rule updating ASC lists a procedure whose inclusion was requested during the public comment period, to cite in the final rule specific criteria based on which the procedure was excluded. Requires the Secretary also to identify the peer reviewed research or the evidence upon which the exclusion is based if certain of those criteria are cited for it. Prohibits the Secretary from using or citing as a criterion or a basis for an exclusion that the procedure can only be reported using a Current Procedural Terminology unlisted surgical procedure code.