lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-06-22 00:00:00

This bill amends the Pathway for SGR Reform Act of 2013 to specify that certain provisions of current law regarding the calculation of hospital length of stay apply to certain long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) that are permitted, under Medicare, to establish new LTCHs or increase LTCH beds. Specifically, with respect to such LTCHs, two types of patients shall be excluded from the calculation of LTCH length of stay under Medicare: (1) those for whom payment is made under a Medicare Advantage plan, and (2) those for whom payment is made at the site-neutral payment rate.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-07-01 00:00:00

Continuing Access to Hospitals Act of 2016 or the CAH Act of 2016

This bill requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 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.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission must report on the effect of extending this instruction on: (1) Medicare beneficiaries, and (2) hospital staffing needs.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-07-01 00:00:00

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to remove certain hospitals specializing in neoplastic disease from their classification as long-term care hospitals for purposes of Medicare payment. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shall make payments to these hospitals under reasonable cost-based reimbursement rules rather than under the prospective payment system.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-07-11 00:00:00

Sustaining Healthcare Integrity and Fair Treatment Act of 2016

This bill amends titles XVIII (Medicare) and XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act, among other Acts, to modify provisions related to long-term care hospital (LTCH) payments under Medicare.

(Sec. 101) The bill amends the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 to revise the applicability of certain Medicare payment rules exempting LTCHs from negative payment adjustments for admissions from certain co-located hospitals beyond specified thresholds. These rules shall apply for an additional period beginning on October 1, 2016.

(Sec. 102) In addition, the bill amends the Pathway for SGR Reform Act of 2013 to expand to all LTCHs the application of a payment rule that requires the exclusion of certain patients for purposes of calculating length of stay. Under current law, the payment rule applies only to a hospital that was classified as an LTCH as of a specified date.

(Sec. 103) The bill removes certain hospitals specializing in neoplastic disease from their classification as LTCHs for purposes of Medicare payment.

(Sec. 104) With specified exceptions, current law applies certain payment limits to inpatient services for LTCHs that do not meet specified discharge requirements. The bill: (1) establishes a new temporary exception to these limits for certain spinal cord specialty hospitals, and (2) expands an existing temporary exception with respect to certain discharges involving severe wounds.

(Sec. 201) Current law allows the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to impose a temporary moratorium on the enrollment of new providers under Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) if necessary to combat fraud, waste, or abuse. With specified exceptions, the bill prohibits payment under these programs to new providers in areas subject to such temporary moratorium.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-07-11 00:00:00

Better Informing Veterans' Healthcare Decisions Act

This bill urges the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to ensure that preventing veteran suicide and providing veterans access to mental health care is its top reform priority.

The VA shall, every 30 days, determine and provide to the Department of Defense, with respect to the previous year:

 the average national wait times (in days) for veterans enrolled in the VA health care system to receive appointments for mental health care and primary health care at VA medical facilities, the average time for the VA to process a claim for disability compensation, and the average time for the VA to decide an appeal of such a claim. The VA shall place a sign displaying the most current such times in a conspicuous location at each career counselor or career assistance advisor office.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-07-13 00:00:00

Fairness for Our Hospitals Act of 2016

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to allow a hospital that meets specified criteria and is located in a state with no rural areas to be considered a Medicare-dependent hospital. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shall establish and implement a process for reimbursing impacted hospitals for any underpayments resulting from this bill's implementation.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-07-14 00:00:00

Improving Standards in VA Contracting Act of 2016

This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to develop uniform policy guidelines for officials, including contracting officers, of the VA's Real Property Service of the Office of Construction and Facilities Management for evaluating potential lessors of property on which to build medical facilities.

Such guidelines shall include evaluating the potential lessor's: (1) past performance on federal contracts, (2) ability to control the property, and (3) conduct of proper due diligence prior to submitting an offer to enter a lease with the VA.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-07-25 00:00:00

Hospital Quality Rating Transparency Act of 2016

This bill delays the date upon which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may make Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings for hospitals publicly available.

With respect to such ratings, HHS shall: (1) make publicly available detailed information on the methodology used, (2) have the validity and accuracy of such methodology independently confirmed, and (3) provide a public comment period of specified duration.

HHS may not make the ratings publicly available until the later of July 31, 2017, or the date upon which the bill's requirements are satisfied.

In the event that such ratings have already been published on a specified website, HHS shall remove them and not republish them until the bill's requirements have been satisfied.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-09-20 00:00:00

Hospital Quality Rating Transparency Act of 2016

This bill delays the date upon which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may make Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings for hospitals publicly available.

With respect to such ratings, HHS shall: (1) make publicly available detailed information on the methodology used, (2) have the validity and accuracy of such methodology independently confirmed, and (3) provide a public comment period of specified duration.

HHS may not make the ratings publicly available until the later of July 31, 2017, or the date upon which the bill's requirements are satisfied.

In the event that such ratings have already been published on a specified website, HHS shall remove them and not republish them until the bill's requirements have been satisfied.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-09-21 00:00:00

ACO Improvement Act of 2016

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to allow an accountable care organization (ACO) to: (1) reduce or eliminate certain cost-sharing for primary care services provided within the ACO's network; (2) develop incentives to encourage patient engagement; (3) elect prospective assignment of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries; and (4) if specified requirements are met, distribute internal cost savings.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) shall waive specified regulatory requirements for ACOs that have elected to share in both savings and losses under a "two-sided risk model."

In addition, the bill: (1) requires CMS to waive, with respect to certain ACOs, specified limitations regarding telehealth services; (2) allows certain ACOs to depart slightly from specified minimum enrollment requirements; (3) requires CMS to establish a demonstration project for allowing growth of certain prospective risk scores; (4) and allows CMS to make permanent certain ACO-related pilot programs that have been successful.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-09-22 00:00:00

National Trauma Care System Act

This bill establishes the Task Force on Eliminating Preventable Deaths or Disabilities due to Traumatic Injuries, which shall: (1) develop a plan to establish a national trauma care system to facilitate the U.S. ability to eliminate preventable deaths related to injuries, eliminate trauma-related disabilities, and respond to mass trauma incidents; and (2) establish specific goals and milestones, and federal responsibilities, to carry out the plan.

The task force shall ensure that each budget of the President submitted to Congress requests sufficient funding to develop and support the system, and that the system:

 includes mechanisms for accountability and a data-driven research agenda, ensures military and civilian trauma systems collect and share common data, is developed and carried out in a manner that reduces regulatory and legal barriers to the full integration of the trauma continuum of care, and is capable of responding domestically to any mass casualty incident. The task force shall develop and implement a national trauma research action plan.

The Department of Health and Human Services shall:

 develop and publish standards for trauma care in pre-hospital and hospital settings; identify, evaluate, and implement policies to ensure coordination between pre-hospital and hospital trauma care; work to facilitate the collection and sharing of data among federal and non-governmental trauma systems; revise and clarify existing regulations to minimize barriers to the use and disclosure of protected health information with respect to trauma care; and ensure the civilian trauma systems participate in a structured trauma quality improvement process. The Department of Defense (DOD) shall:

 submit and implement a plan to establish a Joint Trauma System within the Defense Health Agency that promotes improved trauma care, seek to contract with a non-governmental entity to conduct a system-wide review of the military trauma system, establish a Joint Trauma Education and Training Directorate to ensure that the military trauma care providers maintain readiness and are able to be rapidly deployed for future armed conflicts, partner with civilian trauma centers, determine the number of military trauma care providers that must be maintained within DOD to meet the requirements of the combatant commands, and report on the activities of the Secretarial Designee Program.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-09-28 00:00:00

ACT to Improve VA Timing and Efficiency or the ACTivate Act

This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to: (1) seek to award contracts to private entities to assist with scheduling and managing appointments for veterans enrolled in the VA health care system, and (2) ensure that such private entity assistance augments the VA's scheduling and appointment process.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-09-28 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: Health
Date: 2016-11-29 00:00:00

Fixing Medicare Hospital Payments Act of 2016

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to establish, with respect to calculating payment for inpatient hospital services under Medicare's prospective payment system, a minimum area wage index for hospitals located in metropolitan areas. (Under a prospective payment system, payment is made according to a predetermined, fixed amount.)
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-12-05 00:00:00

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

(Sec. 1) This bill authorizes the Director of a Veterans Integrated Service Network of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to contract with an entity specializing in civilian accreditation or health care evaluation to investigate any medical center within the network to assess deficiencies of the facilities at such medical center.

 Before entering into any contract, the director shall notify the VA, the VA Inspector General, and the Government Accountability Office in order to coordinate any investigation pursuant to a contract with any ongoing investigations or accreditations.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2016-12-08 00:00:00

Increasing New recruit Focus On Receiving Mental healthcare Act or the INFORM Act

This bill urges the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to ensure that preventing veteran suicide and providing veterans access to mental health care is its top reform priority.

The VA shall, every 30 days, determine and provide to the Department of Defense, with respect to the previous year:

 the average national wait times (in days) for veterans enrolled in the VA health care system to receive appointments for mental health care and primary health care at VA medical facilities, the average time for the VA to process a claim for disability compensation, and the average time for the VA to decide an appeal of such a claim. The VA shall place a sign displaying the most current such times in a conspicuous location at each military entrance processing station.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-12-01 00:00:00

Steve Gleason Act of 2016

This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to make permanent the elimination of a specified payment cap under the Medicare program with respect to speech generating devices.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-01-28 00:00:00

Aurora Veterans Affairs 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 Aurora, Colorado.

Requires VA to enter into an agreement with the Chief of Engineers giving the Chief the authority to perform the project, design, contract, and construction management necessary to complete such project.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-02-27 00:00:00

Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Extension Act of 2015

This bill 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 Medicare rural community hospital demonstration program from 5 to 10 years.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shall allow certain rural community hospitals participating in the demonstration program as of December 30, 2014, to continue during the second five years of the 10-year extension period.

HHS shall solicit applications to select up to the maximum number of additional rural community hospitals located in any state to participate in this demonstration program for the second five years of the ten-year extension period without exceeding the applicable limitation (30).

 In determining which applicant rural community hospitals to select for participation in the demonstration program, HHS:

 shall give priority to hospitals located in one of the 20 states with the lowest population densities; and may consider closures of hospitals located in rural areas in the state in which the hospital is located during the 5-year period immediately preceding the enactment of this Act, as well as the population density of the state.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-03-25 00:00:00

National Nursing Shortage Reform and Patient Advocacy Act

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.

Gives nurses the right to act as the patient's advocate by initiating action to improve health care and by giving the patient an opportunity to make informed health care decisions. 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: 2015-03-26 00:00:00

Health Care Safety Net Enhancement Act of 2015

Amends the Public Health Service Act to deem a hospital or an emergency department and a physician or physician group of a hospital or emergency department to be an employee of the Public Health Service with liability protection provided by the United States for purposes of any civil action that may arise due to providing emergency and post-stabilization services on or after January 1, 2016.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-04-16 00:00:00

Department of Veterans Affairs Construction, Accountability, and Reform Act

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

 The Secretary may not pay any bonus during FY2015-FY2016.

If the project to replace the VA Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado, 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 major medical facility 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 Secretary is prohibited from carrying out any major medical facility project.

The Secretary of the Army, through the Chief of Engineers, shall carry out all major medical facility projects for the Department.

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: Health
Date: 2015-04-29 00:00:00

Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015

 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.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-04-29 00:00:00

Hospital Payment Fairness Act of 2015

 Amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to sunset on October 1, 2015, the application of budget neutrality on a national basis in the calculation of the Medicare hospital wage index floor.

(PPACA requires application of the budget neutrality requirement associated with the effect of the imputed rural floor on the area wage index under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 through a uniform national, instead of state-by-state, adjustment to the area hospital wage index floor.)
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-05-14 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.)

Electronic Health Fairness Act of 2015 

(Sec. 3) This bill 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 from being treated as such an encounter in determining whether an eligible professional qualifies as a meaningful electronic health record (EHR) user.

Terminates this prohibition three years after the Department of Health and Human Services determines, through notice and comment rulemaking, that certified EHR technology is applicable to the ambulatory surgical center setting.