lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-05-14 00:00:00

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

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.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-05-22 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the Senate on July 30, 2015. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

(Sec. 1) 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: 2015-05-22 00:00:00

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.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-06-09 00:00:00

Treto Garza South Texas Veterans Inpatient Care Act of 2015

 Designates the medical center of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) located in Harlingen, Texas, as the "Treto Garza South Texas Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Center."

Directs the VA to: (1) ensure that such Center includes a full-service inpatient health care facility; (2) modify the existing facility to meet such requirement; and (3) include in the annual VA strategic capital investment plan a project to expand the Center's capabilities to provide increased inpatient capacity, an urgent care center, and a full range of services to meet the health care needs of women veterans.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-06-10 00:00:00

Care Planning Act of 2015

 Amends titles XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSAct) to cover advanced illness planning and coordination services furnished to an eligible individual with progressive illness, including Alzheimer's disease, by a hospice or other provider through an interdisciplinary team.

Amends SSAct title XI with respect to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and its selection for Phase I testing of innovative payment and service delivery models to reduce Medicare and Medicaid expenditures while preserving or enhancing the quality of care. Adds a model for payments to providers that furnish advanced illness care coordination services to eligible individuals who are entitled to, or enrolled for, benefits under Medicare part A (Hospital Insurance) and enrolled under part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance), but not enrolled under Medicare part C (Medicare+Choice).

Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Department of Health and Human Services, in awarding grants, contracts, or agreements under provisions for quality measure development, to give priority to the development of quality measures that allow the assessment of various specified factors including the effectiveness, patient-centeredness (and, where relevant, family caregiver-centeredness), and accuracy of care plans, including documentation of individual goals, preferences, and values.

Amends SSAct title XVIII (Medicare) to require inclusion of information on advanced care planning materials in the "Medicare and You Handbook."

Revises requirements for the use under Medicare of advanced directives, portable treatment orders, and other treatment directions from an individual or legally authorized representative.

Amends the Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act of 1997 with respect to advanced directives.

Establishes additional requirements under Medicare for hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, and hospice programs with respect to completion before discharge of care plan documentation.

Authorizes the Secretary to award grants to certain entities to:

 develop online training modules, decision support tools, and instructional materials for individuals, family caregivers, and health care providers; establish a website and telephone hotline to disseminate such resources and any materials designed by the HHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships for faith communities; and conduct a national public education campaign to raise public awareness of advance care planning and advanced illness care.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-06-11 00:00:00

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

Amends the Construction Authorization and Choice Improvement Act to remove the FY2015 limitation on, and increase the amount authorized for, the replacement of the existing Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver, Colorado.

(Sec. 2) Authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to transfer specified amounts of the unobligated balances available to the VA for FY2015 from the following appropriations accounts to the Construction, Major Projects account to carry out the major medical facility construction project in Denver:

 Medical Services, to be derived from amounts available for the Human Capital Investment Plan; Medical Support and Compliance, to be derived from amounts available for such Plan; Medical Facilities, to be derived from amounts available for green energy projects of the VA and human capital investment plans; National Cemetery Administration, to be derived from amounts available for such Plan; General Administration, to be derived from amounts available for the Office of the Secretary; General Operating Expenses, Veterans Benefits Administration, to be derived from amounts available for such Plan; Information Technology Systems, to be derived from amounts available for such Plan; and Construction, Minor Projects, to be derived from amounts available for minor construction projects at the staff offices of the VA. Authorizes the VA to transfer specified amounts of the unobligated balances available in the VA's revolving supply fund and in the VA's Franchise Fund to the Construction, Major Projects account to carry out the Denver project.

Requires funds transferred under this Act to remain available until September 30, 2016.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-06-17 00:00:00

Puerto Rico Hospital HITECH Amendments Act of 2015 

Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to apply Medicare HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) payments to subsection (d) hospitals in Puerto Rico to allow them to qualify for incentives for adoption and meaningful use of certified electronic health record Technology.

(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: Science, technology, communications
Date: 2015-08-03 00:00:00

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

Rural Health Care Connectivity Act of 2015

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Communications Act of 1934 to include skilled nursing facilities among the types of health care providers that may request from a telecommunications carrier under the Universal Service Fund the necessary telecommunications and information services to serve persons who reside in rural areas at rates that are reasonably comparable to rates charged for similar services in urban areas.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-09-24 00:00:00

Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality and Access Act of 2015

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to: (1) require the payment system for ambulatory surgical center (ASC) services to feature certain positive annual adjustments equivalent to those made with respect to hospital outpatient department (OPD) services; (2) revise quality reporting requirements to permit publicly available, side-by-side comparisons of quality measures for ASCs and OPDs in the same geographic area; and (3) require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), when excluding requested procedures from the list of those approved to be performed in ASCs, to cite specified reasons for doing so.

With respect to excluding procedures from the approved list for ASCs, HHS may not cite as a basis for exclusion that a procedure can only be reported using an unlisted surgical procedure code. (Physicians sometimes use unlisted codes when performing new procedures or services if no existing code is adequately descriptive.)
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-09-30 00:00:00

Preserving Patient Access to Post-Acute Hospital Care Act of 2015

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to delay by two additional years the application of negative payment adjustments under the "25-percent rule" to certain long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) and satellite facilities. This rule reduces payments to a long-term care facility that admits proportionately more patients from any single hospital.

The bill also continues for two additional years the moratorium, for the purposes of Medicare, on establishing new LTCHs or increasing LTCH beds.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-10-22 00:00:00

Securing Care for Seniors Act of 2015

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to periodically revise the Medicare Advantage (MA) risk adjustment system, such that an individual's risk score takes into account the number of chronic conditions with which the individual has been diagnosed.

In addition, CMS must evaluate the impacts to the system of: (1) using two years of data, (2) removing diagnostic codes related to chronic kidney disease, and (3) modifying the use of encounter data (information on services furnished to MA enrollees). If CMS subsequently determines that any of these revisions would better reflect the population served, CMS shall make such revisions. Before doing so, however, CMS must: (1) ensure that the changes do not prevent an MA organization from performing activities that are consistent with national health policy goals, and (2) provide an opportunity for review and public comment.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-11-03 00:00:00

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to allow adminstrative or judicial review of additional Medicare disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payment determinations for acute care hospitals known as subsection (d) hospitals. Under current law, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid must make DSH payments to qualifying hospitals that treat a disproportionate share of low-income patients.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-11-09 00:00:00

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

Rural ACO Provider Equity Act of 2015 

(Sec. 2) This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to establish additional requirements for assigning Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries to accountable care organizations (ACOs) under the Medicare shared savings program. (The program enables ACOs to receive payments for savings stemming from care coordination and management.)

Specifically, the bill requires the basis for assignment to reflect beneficiaries' utilization of not only primary care services provided by ACO physicians, but also those furnished in federally qualified health centers or rural health clinics.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-04-07 00:00:00

Promoting Responsible Opioid Prescribing Act of 2016 or the PROP Act of 2016

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to exclude certain pain-related measures for purposes of calculating incentive payments under the value-based purchasing program (VBP). (VBP is a program that links hospital payments to the quality of care provided.)

Specifically, VPB measures shall not include measures based on a patient's assessment of: (1) the patient's need for pain medicine during a hospital stay; (2) how often, during the stay, the patient's pain was well controlled; or (3) how often, during the stay, hospital staff did everything they could to help manage the patient's pain.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-04-21 00:00:00

Fair Medicare Hospital Payments Act of 2016

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to establish, with respect to hospitals not located in a frontier state, a floor on the area wage adjustment factor for hospital inpatient and outpatient services covered under Medicare. (Such a floor already applies with respect to hospitals located in frontier states.)
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-04-28 00:00:00

Veterans Choice Program Resolution Act

This bill amends the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to direct the Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to select from among employees of the Office of Inspector General a Choice Program Ombudsman to manage complaints about program hospital care and medical services.

The VA shall publish on publicly available Internet websites of the VA and the Office of Inspector General information regarding the process for submitting a complaint to the Ombudsman.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-04-28 00:00:00

Care Veterans Deserve Act of 2016

This bill amends the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to make the Veterans Choice Program permanent.

Program eligibility is expanded to include all veterans who are enrolled in the annual patient enrollment system under the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital care and medical services program.

The VA shall provide information about the availability of Program care and services to veterans who are new to, or already enrolled, in the system.

The VA shall contract with a national chain of walk-in clinics to provide hospital care and medical services in such clinics to veterans who are in the annual patient enrollment system. A veteran shall not be required to: (1) obtain pre-authorization for such care, or (2) pay a copayment to the clinic or to the VA.

Such national chain shall establish an automated system to provide the VA with weekly information on veterans receiving hospital care or medical services.

A covered health care professional may practice his or her health care profession at any location in any state, regardless of where such health care professional or the patient is located, if the health care professional is using telemedicine to treat an individual. Such treatment is permitted regardless of whether the professional or patient is located in a federally-owned facility.

"Covered health care professional" means a health care professional who is: (1) authorized by the VA to provide health care, including a private health care professional who provides such care under a VA contract or agreement; and (2) licensed, registered, or certified in a state to practice his or her health care profession.

The VA shall:

 extend the operating hours for each VA pharmacy to include weekday evenings until 8:00 p.m., weekends, and federal holidays; and contract with qualifying physicians and nurses to work at VA medical facilities during nights and weekends. The VA may: (1) hire support staff in connection with such extended operating hours, and (2) provide for a nongovernmental hospital organization best-practices peer review of each VA medical center.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-05-12 00:00:00

Requiring Accountability and Inspections for Dining Service Act

This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide for annual inspections to ensure that VA medical facility kitchens and food service areas meet private hospital kitchen and food service area standards.

The VA shall seek to enter into an agreement with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospital Organizations to conduct such inspections. If the VA is unable to enter into an agreement with the Commission, the VA shall seek such an agreement with a non-federal, not-for-profit entity with comparable expertise and objectivity.

If a VA facility kitchen or food service area fails such inspection, the VA shall implement a remediation plan within 48 hours and conduct a second inspection within 7 days. A facility kitchen or food service area that fails the second inspection shall be closed until: (1) remediation is completed, and (2) all kitchens and food service areas at that facility meet the standards.

The Veterans Integrated Service Network of a facility in which a kitchen or food service area is closed shall enter into a food service contract with a General Services Administration-approved vendor to provide food at such facility.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-07-06 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 2016.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-07-13 00:00:00

EHR Regulatory Relief Act

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to:

 establish a 90-day reporting period with respect to determining whether an eligible professional or hospital is a meaningful electronic health record (EHR) user, allow the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to determine that an eligible professional or hospital is a meaningful EHR user if the professional or hospital meets a specified percentage of the applicable measures established by CMS, and extend the applicability of the hardship exception with respect to meaningful EHR use.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Science, technology, communications
Date: 2016-07-14 00:00:00

Reaching Underserved Rural Areas to Lead on Telehealth Act

This bill directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to remove regulatory limitations on the reimbursement amounts that certain large non-rural hospitals may receive for universal service support from the Healthcare Connect Fund, which provides support for high-capacity broadband connectivity to eligible health care providers.

The FCC must allow an eligible non-rural health care provider to receive universal service support if: (1) the majority of locations it serves are in rural areas, and (2) the provider serves as a consortium leader of a group of health care provider sites that request support through a single application.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-09-21 00:00:00

Providing Veterans Overdue Care Act of 2016

This bill authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to carry out major medical facility leases in specified amounts for:

 outpatient clinics in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Daytona Beach, Gainesville, and Ocala, Florida; Hampton Roads, Virginia; Missoula, Montana; Northern Colorado, Colorado; Oxnard and Santa Rosa, California; Pike County, Georgia; Portland, Maine; and Raleigh, North Carolina; an outpatient mental health clinic and an outpatient specialty clinic in Birmingham, Alabama; research space in Boston, Massachusetts; Charleston, South Carolina; and Mission Bay, California; Chief Business Office Purchased Care office space in Denver, Colorado; and replacement outpatient clinics in Corpus Christi, Texas; Jacksonville and Tampa, Florida; Pontiac, Michigan; Rochester, New York (phase II); and Terre Haute, Indiana.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-09-28 00:00:00

This bill authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to carry out major medical facility projects that consist of:

 seismic, life safety, and utilities upgrades and expansion of clinical services in Reno, Nevada; and seismic corrections to the mental health and community living center in Long Beach, California. The bill authorizes appropriations for such projects, subject to specified fund limitations.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-12-07 00:00:00

VA Best-Practices Peer Review Act of 2016

This bill authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide for the conduct by a nongovernmental hospital organization of a best-practices peer review of each VA medical center to evaluate the efficacy of health care delivered at each such center.

The VA must give priority for such review to the VA centers with the longest wait times for an appointment or the worst health outcomes.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Agriculture and food
Date: 2007-01-04 00:00:00

Farm Programs Payment Limitation Integrity Act - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to promulgate regulations to establish measurable standards to prevent the use of separate entities to exceed commodity payment limitations and to provide payments only to active farmers. Amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to provide that if the Secretary determines that a person has committed fraud in connection with the adoption of a scheme or device to evade payment limitations such person shall be ineligible for farm program payments in the crop year for which the scheme or device was adopted and the succeeding five crop years.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2007-01-04 00:00:00

Life Insurance Employee Notification Act - Requires an employer to notify an employee in writing upon the purchase of an employer-owned insurance policy on the life of such employee for a beneficiary other than the individual who is the subject of the policy.Declares that violation of this Act constitutes an unfair method of competition and an unfair or deceptive act or practice under the Federal Trade Commission Act.