lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-03-23 00:00:00

Medicare Audit Improvement Act of 2015

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require that any records or documentation of an orthotist or prosthetist who furnished an orthotic, prosthetic, or prosthetic device to an individual shall be considered part of the individual's medical record in determining whether the item is reasonable and necessary.

Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) shall determine that payment may not be made to a supplier of durable medical equipment (DME) or of orthotics and prosthetics for which a claim is made because the supplier does not meet requirements for licensing or accreditation by a National Board.

Recovery audit contractors (RACs) shall consider an overpayment that must be recouped any payment for DME, orthotics, or prosthetics that should not have been made because the supplier failed to meet licensing or accreditation criteria.

RACs are prohibited from reviewing payments for certain DME, orthotics, or prosthetics to which prior Medicare authorization applies.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services must report annually to Congress certain information on determinations by MACs that payment cannot be made, and by RACs that payment should not have been made, under Medicare for items and services.

Payment is prohibited under part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance) of Medicare for orthotics and prosthetics furnished by a supplier without a supplier number. To obtain such a number a supplier must meet specified criteria.

The Secretary must: (1) review annually the coverage and utilization of orthotics and prosthetics to determine whether they should be subjected to coverage and utilization review criteria, and if appropriate (2) develop and apply such criteria.

Patients are not liable for payment of furnished orthotics and prosthetics which are not reasonable and necessary for the diagnosis or treatment of illness or injury or to improve the functioning of a malformed body member.

Competitive acquisition programs shall not apply to off-the-shelf items and services furnished by certain orthotists or prosthetists who are either licensed or, in a state without licensing requirements, meet specified training, education, certification, or credentialing criteria.

Recoupment of payments to a qualifying provider or supplier may not be made before completion of an administrative law judge appeals process.

Payment under Medicare is denied to suppliers and providers unless they meet certain licensing or other qualifications.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-03-24 00:00:00

Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2015

Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to deem an individual receiving outpatient observation services in a hospital to be an inpatient with respect to satisfying the three-day inpatient hospital requirement in order to entitle the individual to Medicare coverage of any post-hospital extended care services in a skilled nursing facility.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-03-25 00:00:00

Nurse Staffing Standards for Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2015

Amends the Public Health Service Act to require hospitals to implement and submit to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) a staffing plan that complies with specified minimum nurse-to-patient ratios by unit. Requires HHS to develop a transparent method for establishing nurse staffing requirements above minimum ratios.

Directs HHS to adjust Medicare payments to hospitals to cover additional costs incurred in providing services to Medicare beneficiaries that are attributable to compliance with such ratios.

Allows a nurse to object to, or refuse to participate in, any assignment if it would violate minimum ratios or if the nurse is not prepared by education or experience to fulfill the assignment without compromising the safety of a patient or jeopardizing the nurse's license. Prohibits a hospital from: (1) taking specified actions against a nurse based on the nurse's refusal to accept an assignment for such a reason; or (2) discriminating against any individual for good faith complaints relating to the care, services, or conditions of the hospital or of any related facilities.

Adds stipends to the nurse workforce loan repayment and scholarship program. Expands the nurse retention grant program to authorize programs to implement nurse preceptorship and mentorship projects.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-03-25 00:00:00

Lymphedema Treatment Act

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to cover certain lymphedema compression treatment items as durable medical equipment under Medicare. (Lymphedema is a condition of localized fluid retention and tissue swelling that is caused when the lymphatic system is damaged or blocked.)
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-03-25 00:00:00

Physician Availability Act of 2015

Requires each covered hospital to have a qualified physician available in the hospital at all times to attend to the needs of the hospital's inpatients. Defines a "covered hospital" to: (1) include hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid or receiving federal funds, and (2) exclude hospitals in a federal facility or hospitals that the Department of Health and Human Services determines have fewer than 100 licensed beds.

 Considers a physician to be available if: (1) the physician is physically present in the hospital; (2) the physician's primary responsibility is to be in attendance to serve the needs of the hospital's inpatients without delay; and (3) the physician is not physically present in, assigned to, serving in, or expected to cover the hospital's emergency room or emergency department.

Sets forth penalties for violations.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-03-26 00:00:00

VA Construction, Accountability, and Reform Act

This bill authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to carry out the major medical facility project to replace the VA Medical Center in Denver, Colorado (Aurora Project).

 The Secretary may not pay any bonus during FY2015-FY2016. If the Aurora Project is not completed by September 30, 2016, the Secretary may not pay any bonus until the date on which the Secretary certifies to Congress that such Project is fully operational. The aggregate amount of subsequent fiscal year bonuses is capped through FY2024.

 The Secretary shall enter into an agreement with the Secretary of the Army for the Army Corps of Engineers to carry out the design, contract, construction management, and other similar services for the Aurora Project.

The bill prohibits the VA Secretary from carrying out a major medical facility project and requires the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, to carry out all major medical facility projects for the VA.

 The Government Accountability Office shall review the Secretary's management of the Aurora Project.

 The Secretary must notify Congress at least 120 days (currently, at least 30 days) before obligating funds for major medical facility projects that exceed authorized amounts.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-05-15 00:00:00

Construction Reform, Authorization, and Choice Improvement Act of 2015

This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to: (1) enter into an agreement with an appropriate non-VA entity to provide full project management services for a super construction project; and (2) use industry standards, standard designs, and best practices in carrying out medical facility construction.

A super construction project is one for the construction, alteration, or acquisition of a medical facility involving a total expenditure of more than $100 million (but does not include an acquisition by exchange).

The VA is prohibited from:

 obligating or expending funds for advance planning or design for any super construction project until 60 days after congressional notification, obligating funds for a major medical facility project or a super construction project by more than 10% of the amount approved by law unless certain congressional committees each approve the obligation, and using bid savings amounts or funds for other than their original purpose before 30 days after notifying such committees unless each committee approves the obligation. The VA must complete a master plan for each VA medical facility meeting specified requirements to inform investment decisions and funding requests over a 10-year period for construction projects at the facility.

The 40-mile distance requirement for a veteran to use a non-VA medical facility under the veterans choice program of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 means 40 miles calculated on the basis of distance traveled.

The VA may carry out the following major medical facility projects in FY2015 (with each project not to exceed specified amounts):

 construction of a community living center, outpatient clinic, renovated domiciliary, and renovation of existing buildings in Canandaigua, New York; seismic corrections to the mental health and community living center in Long Beach, California; seismic correction of 12 buildings in West Los Angeles, California; and construction of a spinal cord injury building and seismic corrections in San Diego, California. VA authority to make medical services and hospital care available for eligible veterans through agreements with non-VA entities shall now be permanent.

The sense of Congress regarding the Veterans Choice Fund is revised.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-05-19 00:00:00

Amends title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act to require states to have in place a system for the electronic verification of visits conducted as part of personal care services or else have their federal medical assistance percentage reduced by specified amounts.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-05-21 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The expanded summary of the House passed version is repeated here.)

Construction Authorization and Choice Improvement Act

(Sec. 2) This bill authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to carry out the replacement of the existing VA Medical Center in Denver, Colorado, in FY2015 in an amount not to exceed $900 million.

(Sec. 3) The 40-mile distance requirement for a veteran to use a non-VA medical facility under the veterans choice program of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 shall be construed to allow a veteran to access a non-VA medical facility if:

 the veteran resides more than 40 miles driving distance from the closest VA facility; or the veteran faces an unusual or excessive burden in traveling to such VA medical facility not only because of geographical challenges (as under current law) but also because of environmental factors, such as roads that are not accessible to the general public, traffic, or hazardous weather, because of a medical condition that impacts the ability to travel, or because of other factors as the Secretary determines.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-05-21 00:00:00

Comprehensive Care Payment Innovation Act of 2015

 Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide for bundled payments for integrated care furnished by a qualified entity, during an episode of care for applicable conditions involving a hospitalization, to an individual entitled to, or enrolled for, benefits under Medicare part A (Hospital Insurance) and enrolled for benefits under Medicare part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance), but not enrolled under Medicare part C (Medicare+Choice Program) or in a PACE (Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) program.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-05-21 00:00:00

Promoting Access, Competition, and Equity Act of 2015 or the PACE Act of 2015

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to ease application criteria and procedures for physician-owned hospitals to expand their facilities. Under current law, expansion of physician-owned hospitals is subject to certain limitations, such as those regarding the extent and frequency of expansion and requiring community output. The bill suspends these limitations with respect to applications for expansion filed before October 1, 2019.

Following the end of this suspension period, hospitals with consistently high quality ratings are included among those hospitals that may apply to expand their facilities. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services may not alter the methodology for computing a hospital's quality rating before October 1, 2019.

With respect to hospitals under development as of March 23, 2010, the bill extends to May 1, 2015, the date by which a hospital may qualify for an exception to the ownership or investment prohibition on physician self-referrals.

The bill also: (1) exempts physician-owned hospitals from specified documentation and coding adjustments, and (2) extends reductions in certain inflationary increases associated with Medicare payments for inpatient hospital services.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-05-22 00:00:00

Strengthening Medicare Advantage through Innovation and Transparency for Seniors Act of 2015

(Sec. 2) This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSAct) with respect to criteria for qualifying as a meaningful user of electronic health records (meaningful EHR user). For any payment year after 2015 any patient encounter of an eligible professional occurring at an eligible ambulatory surgical center shall not be treated as one in determining whether an eligible professional qualifies as a meaningful EHR user.

(Sec. 3) HHS shall establish a three-year demonstration program to test the use of value-based insurance design methodologies under the eligible Medicare Advantage (MA) plans offered by MA organizations under Medicare part C.

"Value-based insurance design methodology" is one for identifying specific prescription medications, and clinical services payable under Medicare, for which copayments, coinsurance, or both would improve the management of specific chronic clinical conditions because of the high value and effectiveness of such medications and services for such specific chronic clinical conditions, as approved by HHS.

 HHS may expand the duration and scope of the demonstration program to an appropriate extent if specified requirements are met.

(Sec. 4) Payment amounts are prescribed for infusion drugs and biologicals furnished through durable medical equipment (DME) on or after January 1, 2017.

(Sec. 5) It is the sense of Congress that HHS:

 has incorrectly interpreted the determination of blended benchmark amounts as prohibiting the provision of any Medicare quality incentive payments with respect to MA plans that exceed the payment benchmark cap for the area served by those plans; and should immediately apply quality incentive payments with respect to such MA plans without regard to limits. (Sec. 6) $220 million shall be available to the Medicare Improvement Fund during and after FY2020.

(Sec. 7) DME competitive acquisition programs shall not cover infusion drugs and biologicals.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-05-29 00:00:00

LTCH Technical Correction Act of 2015

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007, as amended by other specified federal law, with respect to the five-year moratorium beginning April 1, 2014, on the establishment of long-term care (LTC) hospitals and LTC satellite facilities and on the increase of LTC hospital beds in existing LTC hospitals or satellite facilities for purposes of title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSAct).

A technical correction is made to an exception to this moratorium for certain LTC hospitals that:

 began their qualifying period for Medicare payment on or before April 1, 2014; have a binding written agreement as of that date with an outside, unrelated party for the actual construction, renovation, lease, or demolition for an LTC hospital, and have expended, before that date, at least 10% of the project's estimated cost (or, if less, $ 2.5 million); or have obtained on or before that date an approved certificate of need in a state where one is required. This bill applies the exception to any similar moratorium.

(Sec. 3) Amends SSAct title XVIII to direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under the prospective payment system for inpatient hospital services furnished by an LTC hospital for fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2016, to reduce the standard federal payment rate as if the estimated aggregate amount of high cost outlier payments for standard federal payment rate discharges for each fiscal year would be equal to 8% of estimated aggregate payments for standard federal payment rate discharges for that fiscal year.

Directs HHS to set the fixed loss amount for high cost outlier payments so that the estimated aggregate amount of high cost outlier payments made for standard federal payment rate discharges for fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2016, shall be equal to 99.0625% of 8% of estimated aggregate payments for standard federal payment rate discharges for each such fiscal year.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-06-24 00:00:00

This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to continue to instruct Medicare contractors not to enforce requirements for direct physician supervision of outpatient therapeutic services in critical access and small rural hospitals through 2015.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-06-25 00:00:00

Medicare Patient Access to Cancer Treatment Act of 2015

 Expresses the sense of Congress that, to ensure the future of community cancer care, Medicare reimbursement should be equal for the same service provided to a cancer patient regardless of whether the service is delivered in the hospital outpatient department (OPD) or physician's office.

Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act with respect to the prospective payment system (PPS) for OPD services to require that the payment amount under PPS and physician fee schedules for covered OPD cancer services be a budget neutral combination of the amount otherwise payable under the PPS and the amount otherwise payable under the physician fee schedule for such services.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-07-10 00:00:00

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to repeal the prohibition against, and so permit, administrative or judicial review of any estimate used and any period selected for determining additional Medicare disproportionate share hospital payments to subsection (d) hospitals.

(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.)
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-07-27 00:00:00

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to prohibit the application of Medicare competitive acquisition rates to complex rehabilitative wheelchairs and accessories. (A competitive bidding program has replaced the use of established fee schedule amounts to determine payments under Medicare for certain durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs.)
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-07-29 00:00:00

Strengthening DSH and Medicare Through Subsidy Recapture and Payment Reform Act of 2015

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to alter the method of determining disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments under the Medicare program. (DSH payments compensate hospitals for the higher operating costs they incur in treating a large share of low-income patients.) The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) must estimate the aggregate amount of payments to be made for each fiscal year; if the estimated amount exceeds $3.3 billion, then each DSH payment shall be made according to its ratio to that limit.

CMS must make supplementary DSH payments to certain hospitals located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansa, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, or Wyoming.

The bill also amends the Internal Revenue Code to modify provisions related to overpayments made to taxpayers for tax credits under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Under current law, if the advance payments to a taxpayer for premium tax credits under PPACA exceed the allowable credit, the tax imposed shall be increased by the amount of such excess, subject to certain income-based limitations. The bill eliminates these income-based limitations.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-07-29 00:00:00

Medicare Crosswalk Hospital Code Development Act of 2015

This bill amends Title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) to establish a crosswalk between Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes and Medicaid Severity-Diagnosis Related Group (MS-DRG) codes for similar hospital services. (A crosswalk shows users where to put data from one scheme into a different scheme.)

Specifically, CMS must develop HCPCS versions for MS-DRGs that is similar to the Internal Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-PCS) codes for such MS-DRGs such that, to the extent possible, the MS-DRG assignment shall be similar for a claim coded with the HCPCS version as an identical claim coded with an ICD-10-PCS code.

CMS must develop and publish a freely available HCPCS/MS-DRG definitions manual and software.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-09-24 00:00:00

Increased Authorizations for the Denver VA Medical Center Construction Project Act

This bill amends the Construction Authorization and Choice Improvement Act to increase the amount authorized for the replacement of the existing Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Denver, Colorado.

In the case of any super construction project (expenditures exceeding $100 million) the VA shall enter into an agreement with an appropriate non-VA federal entity to provide full project management services for the super construction project, including management over the project design, acquisition, construction, and contract changes.

The Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 is amended to reduce the aggregate amount of specified VA awards and bonuses for FY2016. (Existing award levels are maintained for each of FY2017-FY2024.)

The VA shall reduce the retirement annuity benefits of a senior executive employee who: (1) is convicted of a felony that influenced the individual's performance while employed in the senior executive position, and (2) is afforded notice and an opportunity for a hearing conducted by another federal department or agency.

The VA may issue an order directing a VA employee to repay in full or in part any award or bonus if: (1) the VA determines such repayment appropriate pursuant to specified regulations, and (2) the employee is afforded notice and an opportunity for a hearing conducted by another federal department or agency.

A VA decision regarding a repayment is final and not subject to review by other federal agencies or courts.