zli12321/Bills huggingface dataset:
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.

Date: 2016-09-21
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

Date: 2016-09-22
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.

Date: 2016-09-28
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.

Date: 2016-09-28
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.)

Date: 2016-11-29
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

(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.

Date: 2016-12-05
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.

Date: 2016-12-08
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.

Date: 2016-12-01
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

Date: 2015-01-28
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.

Date: 2015-02-27
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

Date: 2015-03-25
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

Date: 2015-03-26
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

Date: 2015-04-16
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.

Date: 2015-04-29
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.)

Date: 2015-04-29
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
(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.

Date: 2015-05-14
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

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.

Date: 2015-05-14
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
(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.

Date: 2015-05-22
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
Ensuring Equal Access to Treatments Act of 2015

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

Date: 2015-05-22
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

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

Date: 2015-06-10
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
(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.

Date: 2015-06-11
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.)

Date: 2015-06-17
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

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.

Date: 2015-08-03
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Science, technology, communications
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.)

Date: 2015-09-24
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

Date: 2015-09-30
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

Date: 2015-10-22
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

Date: 2015-11-03
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

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.

Date: 2015-11-09
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

Date: 2016-04-07
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.)

Date: 2016-04-21
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

Date: 2016-04-28
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.

Date: 2016-04-28
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.

Date: 2016-05-12
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.

Date: 2016-07-06
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

Date: 2016-07-13
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Health
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.

Date: 2016-07-14
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Science, technology, communications
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.

Date: 2016-09-21
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.

Date: 2016-09-28
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.

Date: 2016-12-07
Topic: Health (Medical Facilities)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
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.

Date: 2007-01-04
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Agriculture and food
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.

Date: 2007-01-04
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Labor and employment
Seasoned Customer CTR Exemption Act of 2007 - Amends federal money and finance law to: (1) repeal the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury to exempt a depository institution from currency transaction reporting (CTR) requirements with respect to transactions between the depository institution and a qualified business customer; and (2) instruct the Secretary to prescribe regulations that exempt a depository institution from filing a CTR if the transaction is with a qualified customer. Defines qualified customer as any person that: (1) is incorporated or organized under federal or state law, including a sole proprietorship, or is registered as and eligible to do business within the United States or a state; (2) has maintained a deposit account with the depository institution for at least 12 months; and (3) has engaged, using such account, in multiple currency transactions subject to federal CTR requirements. Requires such regulations to require a depository institution to file a one-time notice of designation of exemption for each of its qualified customers. Authorizes the Secretary to: (1) suspend, reject, or revoke any qualified customer exemption notice; and (2) establish conditions under which exempt qualified customers of an insured depository institution merged with or acquired by another insured depository institution will continue to be treated as designated exempt qualified customers of the surviving or acquiring institution. Requires the Secretary to submit a three-year review and report evaluating implementation of this Act. Requires the Secretary to review every five years: (1) the continuing appropriateness, relevance, and utility of each threshold amount or denomination established for any mandatory CTR; (2) adjust such amount for inflation, if any; and (3) report to Congress the review findings and conclusions, together with an explanation for any adjustment, or lack of adjustment, of any threshold amount or denomination.

Date: 2007-01-09
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Prevent Unfair Manipulation of Prices Act of 2007 - Amends the Commodity Exchange Act to extend its jurisdiction to certain: (1) "included energy transactions" traded on an electronic trading facility; and (2) certain energy commodities involved in over-the-counter transactions. Sets forth reporting and recordkeeping requirements for: (1) certain contract participants that enter into or execute "included energy transactions;" and (2) electronic trading facilities for energy commodities. Extends prohibitions against fraudulent transactions to: (1) filling an order by offset against the other person's order; and (2) knowingly and willfully becoming the buyer in respect to another person's selling order, or the seller in respect to another person's buying order, without the other person's prior consent. Empowers the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to impose civil and criminal penalties for price manipulation and other violations of such Act.

Date: 2007-01-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Energy
Promoting Transparency in Financial Reporting Act of 2007 - Requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to provide oral testimony by their respective Chairpersons (or a designee), beginning in 2007, and annually for five years, to the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives on their efforts to reduce the complexity in financial reporting to provide more accurate and clear financial information to investors.

Date: 2007-01-31
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Tax Snooping Prevention Act of 2007 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to double the dollar amount of civil damages available and the criminal fines for unauthorized inspection or disclosure of tax returns and return information.Amends the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 to require the firing of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees who violate IRS policy on unauthorized inspection of tax returns or return information.

Date: 2007-01-31
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Taxation
Simplification Through Additional Reporting Tax Act of 2007 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to include within the reporting requirements of investment brokers the adjusted basis of any security owned by customers of such brokers.

Date: 2007-02-07
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Taxation
Amend Misinterpreted Excessive Regulation In Corporate America Act - Amends the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to direct the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to appoint an ombudsman to act as a liaison between the Board and any registered public accounting firm or issuer regarding: (1) issues or disputes concerning the preparation or issuance of any audit report with respect to that issuer; and (2) problems resulting from Board regulatory activities, particularly implementation of management assessment of internal controls. Revises requirements governing appointment of Board members. Provides for Presidential appointment of Board members, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Declares that Congress reserves the authority to establish periodic limits upon the amount of fees which may be collected on behalf of the Board. Instructs the Securities and Exchange Commission to: (1) adopt revisions to its rules regarding management's assessment of an issuer's internal control structure and procedures; and (2) adopt a more risk-based statement on internal control reporting that focuses internal control review on financial controls having significant risk of failing to prevent financial damages that would be material to the issuer's financial statements. Instructs the Board to revise its standards for auditor attestation to and reporting on management's internal control assessment. Revises the requirement that each registered public accounting firm that prepares or issues the audit report for an issuer attest to the internal control assessment made by the issuer's management. Allows an issuer, in the alternative, to engage separately a different registered public accounting firm to attest to such assessment. (Current law prohibits such separate attestation engagements.) Prohibits any private right of action against a registered public accounting firm in any federal or state court on the basis of a violation or alleged violation of assessment requirements or standards issued by the Board for purposes of implementing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Date: 2007-02-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Money Market Fund Parity Act of 2007 - Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to revise, according to specified requirements, rules relating to net capital, custody and use of customers' securities, and certain underwritings to provide for: (1) treatment of securities issued by qualified money market funds comparable with the treatment under those rules of other low-risk securities and deposits; and (2) the expanded use of securities issued by qualified money market funds for financing by brokers and dealers.

Date: 2007-02-16
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Corporate Charitable Disclosure Act of 2007 - Amends the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 to require disclosure of: (1) corporate charitable contributions whose value exceeds what the issuer made during the previous year to any nonprofit organization of which a director, officer, or controlling person of the issuer (or a spouse) was a director or trustee (insider affiliated charity); (2) the name of such nonprofit organization and the value of the contribution; (3) the total value of contributions made by the issuer to nonprofit organizations during its previous fiscal year; and (4) the organization name and the value of contributions if the value to any one organization exceeds the amount designated by Securities and Exchange Commission rule.

Date: 2007-02-27
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector