jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-06-21 00:00:00

Environmental Health Workforce Act of 2016

This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)to develop model standards and guidelines for credentialing environmental health professionals.

Additionally, HHS must develop a comprehensive and coordinated plan for the environmental health workforce that: (1)includes performance measures, (2)identifies any gaps between existing programs and future environmental health workforce needs, and (3)identifies actions needed to address any identified gaps.

The Government Accountability Office must identify the best practices related to training and credentialing environmental health professionals in six states.

The bill also amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to make environmental health professionals eligible for loan forgiveness programs from the Department of Education.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-09-15 00:00:00

Graduate Opportunities in Medical Education Distribution Act of 2016

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to redistribute unused residency positions for which graduate medical education costs are paid under Medicare. Specifically, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services must: (1) reduce a hospital's resident limit by a specified amount if the hospital has unused residency positions and is not a rural hospital with fewer than 250 acute care inpatient beds, and (2) increase the resident limit for each qualifying hospital that applies for an increase. In aggregate, the number of increased positions shall equal the number of reduced positions. The bill establishes specified priorities and capacity considerations with respect to redistribution.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-09-20 00:00:00

Improving Cancer Treatment Education Act of 2016

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to establish Medicare coverage with respect to comprehensive treatment education services for cancer patients.

In addition, the bill requires the National Institutes of Health to expand, intensify, and coordinate research on cancer symptom management improvement.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-09-27 00:00:00

Veterans-Specific Education for Tomorrow's Medical Doctors Act or the VET MD Act

This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to carry out a three-year pilot program at at least five VA medical centers to provide undergraduate students a clinical observation experience.

The VA shall ensure that such program:

 increases the awareness, knowledge, and empathy of future medical professionals toward the medical conditions common to veterans; increases the diversity of the recruitment pool of future VA physicians; provides a diverse clinical observation experience commensurate with the standard expectations for medical school applications; and expands clinical observation opportunities for all students by encouraging students of all backgrounds to consider a career in medicine. The VA shall select undergraduate students who are U.S. citizens enrolled in an accredited science or medical program of study to participate in the program, with priority to students who resided in a health professional shortage area and who are the first in their immediate family to attend an undergraduate institution.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-09-28 00:00:00

Physician Shortage Minimization Act of 2016

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to classify, for employment tax purposes, certain physicians who provide medical services for a temporary period (locum tenens physicians) as independent contractors rather than as employees.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-09-28 00:00:00

Veterans' Health Care Safety Act of 2016

This bill prohibits implementation of a proposed Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) rule to permit full practice authority of all VA advanced practice registered nurses when they are acting within the scope of their VA employment.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-11-16 00:00:00

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to modify, with respect to graduate medical education (GME) payments under the Medicare program, provisions related to "approved medical residency training programs" by: (1) specifying that such programs include osteopathic community residency training programs; and (2) replacing the requirement for such programs to include certain postgraduate training in geriatric medicine with a requirement for approval by a certified accrediting body.

Under current law, a "foreign medical graduate" is generally a resident who was not a graduate of a school that meets the standards for accreditation by one of several specified accreditors. (Foreign medical graduates are subject to certain examination requirements for purposes of being counted as residents with respect to Medicare GME payments.) The bill alters this definition such that a "foreign medical graduate" is a resident who is not a graduate of an accredited school.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services must certify at least two accrediting bodies for the purpose of accrediting medical residency training programs in allopathic and osteopathic medicine.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-12-08 00:00:00

Fairness to Teaching Hospitals Act of 2016

This bill amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to specify that a certain Medicare rule for counting resident time in nonprovider settings shall not be applied in a manner that requires the reopening of any settled hospital cost reports except where there was a jurisdictionally proper appeal pending as of March 23, 2010. The bill applies retroactively.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-01-21 00:00:00

Veterans to Paramedics Transition Act of 2015

Amends the Public Health Service Act to revise the grant program to improve emergency medical services in rural areas to include as a permissible use of grant funds the provision of coursework and training to enable veterans to satisfy emergency medical services personnel certification requirements. Requires such coursework and training to take into account previous medical coursework and training received by such veterans when they were on active duty in the Armed Forces.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-01-27 00:00:00

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.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-02-11 00:00:00

Veteran Emergency Medical Technician Support Act of 2015

Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a demonstration program for states with a shortage of emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to streamline state requirements and procedures to assist veterans who completed military EMT training to meet state EMT certification, licensure, and other requirements.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-02-25 00:00:00

Physician Ambassadors Helping Veterans Act

Requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to use the Secretary's authority to employ certain personnel without regard to civil service or classification laws, rules, or regulations to employ physicians on a without compensation basis in any practice area or specialty for which: (1) the average waiting time for veterans seeking an appointment with a physician exceeds the VA's waiting time goals, or (2) the VA medical facility where the physician will be employed has demonstrated staffing shortages.

Requires each VA medical facility to have a volunteer coordinator who: (1) seeks to establish relationships with medical associations serving the area, (2) recruits physicians for uncompensated employment at the facility, and (3) serves as the initial point of contact for physicians seeking uncompensated employment at the facility.

Conditions an uncompensated physician's receipt of a credential or privilege to practice medicine in a VA facility on the physician's commitment to serve at least 40 hours in the facility during the ensuing one-year period.

Requires the Secretary to decide whether to grant an uncompensated physician's request for a credential or privilege to practice medicine in the VA facility within 60 days.

Requires the director of a VA medical facility to approve, and accept the uncompensated services of, any physician who has made the requisite service commitment and receives a credential or privilege to practice medicine in such facility.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-02-26 00:00:00

Battlefield Excellence through Superior Training Practices Act or the BEST Practices Act

Requires the Department of Defense (DOD), no later than: (1) October 1, 2018, to develop, test, and validate human-based training methods for training members of the Armed Forces in the treatment of combat trauma injuries, with the goal of replacing live animal-based training methods; and (2) October 1, 2020, to use only use human-based training methods for such purposes.

Prohibits the use of animals in such training after the latter date, but permits DOD to exempt a particular command or training method from human-based training method requirements for up to one year if the human-based methods will not provide an educationally equivalent or superior substitute for live animal-based training methods. Allows exemption periods to be renewed.

Requires DOD to submit an annual report to Congress regarding the development and implementation of the human-based training methods, including the justifications for any exemptions.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-03-03 00:00:00

Improving Access to Maternity Care Act

This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Health Resources and Services Administration to designate maternity care health professional shortage areas and review these designations at least annually.

The Department of Health and Human Services must collect and publish data on health professional shortage areas so availability of maternal health professionals can be compared by professional category and geographic region.

A maternity care health professional shortage area is: (1) an area determined to have a shortage of providers of full scope maternity care health services or of hospital or birth center labor and delivery units, or (2) a population group determined to have a shortage of such providers or facilities.

Full scope maternity care health services include care during labor, birthing, prenatal care, and postpartum care.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-03-03 00:00:00

Making the Education of Nurses Dependable for Schools Act or the MEND Act 

Requires the Department of Health and Human Services, for any reimbursements to providers under title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act for the costs of nursing and allied health education activities, to apply the regulation establishing the payment methodology for such reimbursements by treating a provider as meeting the requirements:

 for consideration as operating an approved nursing or allied health education program if the provider or a wholly owned subsidiary educational institution singly or collectively meets all such requirements; for payment for certain nonprovider-operated programs at wholly owned subsidiary educational institutions if the provider meets all such requirements except that the transfer of a nursing or allied health education program to that wholly owned subsidiary educational institution to meet accreditation standards occurred after October 1, 2003, and if the provider or its wholly owned subsidiary educational institution has been in continuous operation since October 1, 2003. Defines "wholly owned subsidiary educational institution" as one that: (1) is organized as a legal entity distinct from the provider, (2) has the provider as its sole owner or sole member, and (3) is organized in the same state in which the provider is organized or registered to do business.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-03-10 00:00:00

Sports Medicine Licensure Clarity Act

Provides that for purposes of medical professional liability insurance or civil and criminal malpractice liability determinations, a physician or athletic trainer (covered sports medicine professional) who is authorized to practice medicine in a state (primary state) and who provides medical services to an athlete or athletic team in a state where such professional is not authorized to practice (secondary state) shall be deemed to have provided such medical services in the primary state, provided that prior to providing the covered medical services such professional has disclosed the nature and extent of such services to the entity that provides such professional with medical professional liability insurance in the primary state.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-03-17 00:00:00

Veterans Access to Care Act

This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to automatically designate medical facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as health professional shortage areas.

 Individuals may not participate in both the VA's Health Professionals Education Assistance Program and the National Health Service Corps scholarship or loan repayment programs.

The Department of Health and Human Services, in carrying out the National Health Service Corps Program, must consult with the VA regarding health professional shortage areas that are VA medical facilities.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-04-13 00:00:00

National Health Service Corps Improvement Act of 2015

This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to include optometry services in primary health services for purposes of the National Health Service Corps.

Optometrists are eligible for the fellowship program for the delivery of primary health services in health professional shortage areas, the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program, and the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-04-22 00:00:00

National Health Service Corps Expansion Act of 2015

This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to allow the medical facilities or the health care of a county or municipal correctional institution to be designated as a health professional shortage area. (Health professionals working in a health professional shortage area are eligible for the National Health Service Corps and the Corp's fellowship program, Scholarship Program, and Loan Repayment Program.)
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-04-30 00:00:00

Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2015

 Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act with respect to distribution of additional resident positions as they affect calculation of payments for direct graduate medical education costs.

Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, for each of FY2017-FY2021 (and each succeeding fiscal year if additional residency positions are available to distribute), to increase the otherwise applicable resident limit for each qualifying hospital.

Requires the aggregate number of increases in the otherwise applicable resident limit to be 3,000 in each of FY2017-FY2021, of which 1,500 in each such fiscal year shall be used for full-time equivalent residents training in a shortage specialty residency program.

Specifies the process for distributing positions.

Declares that, for discharges occurring on or after July 1, 2017, the indirect teaching adjustment factor, with respect to additional payments for subsection (d) hospitals with indirect costs of medical education, insofar as those additional payments are attributable to resident positions distributed to a hospital according to such process, shall be computed in a specified manner with respect to those resident positions.

(Generally, a subsection [d] hospital is an acute care hospital, particularly one that receives payments under Medicare's inpatient prospective payment system when providing covered inpatient services to eligible beneficiaries.) Directs the National Health Care Workforce Commission established under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to study the physician workforce.

Directs the Comptroller General to study strategies for increasing the diversity of the health profession workforce.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-05-14 00:00:00

Medicare Patient Access to Hospice Act of 2015 

Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to recognize attending physician assistants as attending physicians to serve hospice patients.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-05-21 00:00:00

Physical Therapist Workforce and Patient Access Act of 2015

Amends the Public Health Service Act to include physical therapy within the definition of "primary health services" for purposes of the National Health Service Corps. Makes physical therapists eligible for repayment of their educational loans in order to ensure an adequate supply of physical therapists.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-05-21 00:00:00

Department of Veterans Affairs Emergency Medical Staffing Recruitment and Retention Act

This bill authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to modify the hours of employment for a physician or physician assistant appointed in the VA on a full-time basis to more or less than 80 hours in a biweekly pay period provided the employee's total hours of employment in a calendar year do not exceed 2,080.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-06-24 00:00:00

Delivering Opportunities for Care and Services for Veterans Act of 2015 or the DOCs for Veterans Act of 2015

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act with respect to determining the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) residents for payments to hospitals for direct graduate medical education (GME) costs, in particular the limitation on the total number of FTE residents in the field of allopathic or osteopathic medicine in a hospital's approved medical residency training program. In applying this limitation, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shall not take into account any such resident who counts towards meeting the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) obligation under the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to increase the number of GME residency positions at VA medical facilities by up to 1,500 positions.

The period for increasing GME residency positions at VA medical facilities is extended to 10 years.

 The VA and HHS shall jointly conduct a six-year pilot program to establish at least three graduate behavioral medicine residency programs in underserved areas in the United States.

Education and training of marriage and family therapists and licensed professional mental health counselors shall be included in VA health personnel education and training programs.

Persons with a doctoral degree in mental health counseling are eligible for appointment to a VA mental health counselor position.

Physician assistants in VA facilities must receive pay competitive with pay for similar positions in non-VA facilities in the same labor market.

At least 30% of debt reduction payments paid under the education debt reduction program each year shall be paid to individuals who practice medicine in a rural or highly rural area.

The positions (and pay) of Directors of Veterans Integrated Service Networks are established.

 The VA shall conduct a two-year pilot program to assess the feasibility of implementing in rural and highly rural areas with a large percentage of veterans a nurse advice line to provide veterans with medical advice, appointment and cancellation services, and information on the availability of VA benefits.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-09-17 00:00:00

This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish a continuing medical education program for non-VA medical professionals, with the goal of: (1) increasing knowledge and recognition of medical conditions common to veterans and family members, and (2) improving outreach to veterans and family members.

The program must include education on: (1) dealing with patients who are veterans or family members; (2) identifying and treating common mental and physical conditions of veterans and family members; (3) programs and benefits available to veterans and family members through the VA, the Department of Labor, and other federal agencies and non-federal organizations; and (4) the VA health care system.

The VA shall: (1) carry out such program for five years on a VA website at no cost to participating non-VA medical professionals, and (2) ensure that the program is accredited in as many states as practicable.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-09-30 00:00:00

Building a Health Care Workforce for the Future Act

This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to award matching grants to enable states to implement scholarship programs to ensure an adequate supply of health professionals.

HHS may award grants to assist medical schools in developing and strengthening primary care mentorship programs and cultivating leaders in primary care among its students.

HHS must award grants to medical and other health professions schools to promote priority competencies that are selected annually by the Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry, in order to foster curricular innovations to improve the education and training of health care providers.

HHS must seek to enter into a contract whereby the National Academy of Medicine (formerly known as the Institute of Medicine) studies the documentation requirements for cognitive services (evaluation and management services) required under Medicare and Medicaid and through private health insurers.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-10-07 00:00:00

Family Health Care Accessibility Act of 2015

This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to deem a health professional volunteer providing primary health care to an individual at a community health center or through programs or events carried out by a center to be an employee of the Public Health Service for purposes of any civil action that may arise from providing services to patients. For a volunteer to be covered by this liability protection, the Department of Health and Human Services must approve the center's application to sponsor the volunteer.
Topic: Health — Manpower
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-10-08 00:00:00

Department of Veterans Affairs Provider Equity Act

This bill includes podiatrists within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) definition of physician, and increases their pay grade to match other VA physician compensation.