zli12321/Bills huggingface dataset:
Patient-Focused Critical Care Enhancement Act - Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), to conduct research to assess: (1) the standardization of critical care protocols, intensive care unit layout, equipment interoperability, and medical informatics; and (2) the impact of differences in staffing, organization, size, and structure of intensive care units on access, quality, and efficiency of care. Requires the Secretary to undertake demonstration projects to: (1) optimize the provision of critical care services to Medicare beneficiaries through innovations in such areas as staffing and utilization of technology; and (2) measure and evaluate outcomes derived from a "family-centered" approach to the provision of inpatient critical care services that includes direct and sustained communication and contact with the beneficiary family members, involvement of family members in the critical care decisionmaking process, and responsiveness of critical care providers to family requests. Amends the Food, Agriculture, Conservation and Trade Act of 1990 to authorize appropriations for FY2008-FY2013 for augmenting the delivery of critical care services in the rural inpatient setting through the use of telecommunications systems that allow for consultation with critical care providers not located in the rural facility regarding the care of such patients. Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary to give preference in awarding telehealth grant funds to entities to develop plans for, or to establish, such critical care telehealth networks. Requires the Secretary to undertake an initiative to recruit providers of critical care services into the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program.

Date: 2007-10-18
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Nursing Education Opportunities Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to include accelerated degree nursing students who pursue a second baccalaureate degree or a master's degree as an entry level nursing degree as eligible for financial assistance through nursing programs in the Act, including the Nursing Student Loan Program. Raises the yearly loan amounts available to all nursing students through that Program. Modifies the definition of "collegiate school of nursing" to include accelerated nursing degree programs.Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in the case of a nurse faculty shortage, to obligate more than 10% of traineeships for individuals in doctoral degree programs.Directs the Secretary to award grants to: (1) eligible entities to establish doctoral nursing degree programs, giving priority to such entities located in states in which there are no such programs; and (2) partnerships of eligible entities to establish doctoral nursing consortia to enhance and expand the availability of doctoral nurse faculty and education by enabling the partners to share doctoral faculty and programmatic resources.Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to authorize the Secretary to award grants to partnerships composed of an accredited nursing school at an institution of higher education and a hospital or health facility to establish up to five pilot projects to enable such hospital or facility to retain its staff of experienced nurses while providing a mechanism to have these individuals become, through an accelerated nursing education program, faculty members of an accredited nursing school.

Date: 2007-10-30
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Enhancing Safety in Medicine Utilizing Leading Advanced Simulation Technologies to Improve Outcomes Now Act of 2007 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to conduct and support research, evaluations, initiatives, and demonstration projects, and provide grants or enter into contracts or cooperative agreements, to enhance the deployment of medical simulation technologies and the incorporation of such technologies and equipment into medical, nursing, allied health, podiatric, osteopathic, and dental education and training protocols.Requires the Director to: (1) establish medical simulation centers of excellence; (2) promote innovation by conducting and supporting research on complex or challenging medical simulation and interdisciplinary simulation technologies and developing an electronic clearinghouse of such technologies; and (3) award grants for purchasing, incorporating, and deploying such technologies for training of physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and qualified students. Establishes within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) the Federal Medical Simulation Coordinating Council. Requires the Director to establish an advisory panel to make recommendations on how to structure programs established by this Act.

Date: 2007-12-06
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Veterans Health Care Quality Improvement Act - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to prescribe standards for appointment and practice as a physician within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Requires: (1) applicants to provide certain information, including each lawsuit, civil action, or other claim against the individual for medical malpractice or negligence, and their results; (2) each appointee to disclose any judgments against the individual for medical malpractice or negligence and any payments made; and (3) physicians already employed within the VHA to disclose such information. Prohibits a new appointment without: (1) approval of the regional director of the Veterans Integrated Services Network (Network) in which the individual will serve; (2) board certification in the specialties in which the individual will practice; and (3) a license to practice medicine in that state. Requires: (1) the VHA's Under Secretary of Health to designate a National Quality Assurance Officer for the VHA quality assurance program; (2) each Network regional director to appoint a quality assurance officer; and (3) the director of each VHA medical facility to appoint a quality assurance officer. Directs the Secretary to review VA policies for maintaining health care quality and patient safety at VA medical facilities. Requires the Secretary, in order to recruit and retain VHA physicians in hard-to-fill positions, to: (1) repay certain educational loans for individuals who agree to serve for at least three years as a VHA physician; (2) reimburse tuition for medical students who agree to serve as a VHA physician after such education; and (3) enroll in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program an individual who agrees to serve as a VHA physician for at least five days per month. Encourages the Secretary to undertake additional incentives to encourage individuals to serve or practice as VHA physicians.

Date: 2007-12-12
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Nursing and Allied Health Education Preservation Act of 2008 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services from denying provider-operated status for a nursing and allied education program that substantially meets certain requirements pertaining to the cost of approved activities for such programs, in effect as of October 1, 2006, on the basis of an organizational structure, contractual arrangements, or legal structure of the program, or a change in such a structure or arrangement, so long as a hospital, hospitals, or health system continues to substantially control the nursing or allied program. Prohibits denial of payments for the costs of approved educational activities for a nursing or allied health education program. Requires restoration to a hospital of any recoupment or denial effected for a previous cost reporting year.

Date: 2008-01-29
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to increase, between FY2008 and FY2010, from 90% to 100% of the locality adjusted national average per resident amount the payment floor for direct graduate medical education (GME) payments under the Medicare program.

Date: 2008-02-13
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Pharmacy Technician Training and Registration Act of 2008 or Emily's Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to states to establish and implement a pharmaceutical technician registration program that requires a state to: (1) prohibit an individual from performing the duties of a pharmaceutical technician unless the individual is registered by the State Board of Pharmacy; (2) require for registration that the individual meet certain requirements related to education and training; and (3) submit an annual report to the Secretary on pharmaceutical technician errors in the state.Allows a state receiving a grant to provide a transitional period for individuals who began practicing as pharmaceutical technicians before the date of the enactment of this Act to comply with the requirements of the registration program.Expresses the sense of Congress that State Boards of Pharmacy should strive to ensure: (1) a ratio of two pharmaceutical technicians to each pharmacist in hospital settings; and (2) a ratio of three pharmaceutical technicians to each pharmacist in other settings, including drug stores.

Date: 2008-02-26
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Public Health Preparedness Workforce Development Act of 2008 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish the Public Health Workforce Scholarship Program to assure an adequate supply of public health professionals to eliminate critical public health preparedness workforce shortages in federal, state, local, and tribal public health agencies by offering four-year scholarships in return for employment at such agencies. Requires the Secretary to establish the Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program to provide for the repayment of loans incurred by individuals in the pursuit of the relevant public health preparedness workforce educational degree or certificate in exchange for working at such agencies for at least three years. Requires the Secretary to award grants to public health agencies that receive public health preparedness cooperative agreements from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to operate state, local, and tribal public health workforce loan repayment programs. Authorizes the Secretary to provide for scholarships to enable mid-career professionals in the public health workforce to receive additional training in the field of public health preparedness or biodefense. Requires the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to ensure that included in the OPM website there is an online catalogue of public health workforce employment opportunities in the federal government. Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to award grants to establish Academic Health Departments to provide for collaboration between the academic and practice aspects of public health.

Date: 2008-02-26
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994 to extend the J-1 visa waiver (Conrad state 30/medical services in underserved areas) program through March 6, 2009. Increases from five to 10 the number of alien physicians under such program who may serve in state facilities that treat patients from, but that may not be located in, a medically underserved area. (Subject to the overall limit of 30 participants per state.) Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) federal programs waiving the two-year foreign residence requirement for physicians are generally designed to promote the delivery of critically needed medical services to people in the United States lacking adequate access to physician care; and (2) when determining the qualification of a location for designation as a health professional shortage area, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should consider the needs of vulnerable populations in low-income and impoverished communities, communities with high infant mortality rates, and communities exhibiting other signs of a lack of necessary physician services.

Date: 2008-03-10
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Immigration
Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act - Amends the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000 to lift the numerical limitations for employment based immigrants (and accompanying family members) for nurses and physical therapists until September 30, 2011, subject to a cap. Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to impose a fee upon each petitioning employer who uses such a visa to provide employment for an alien as a professional nurse. Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Service (HHS), acting through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to award a grant each fiscal year to each eligible nursing school that applies and meets specified requirements to increase the number of nursing faculty and students at the school. Establishes in the Treasury's general fund a Domestic Nursing Enhancement Account. Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to: (1) direct the Secretary to allow an eligible alien (and spouse or child) to reside in a candidate country (defined to include a lower middle income country or one experiencing a natural disaster) during the period the alien is working there as a health care worker; and (2) make inadmissible an alien seeking entry into the United States to perform labor as a health care worker unless the alien attests that he or she does not have an outstanding obligation to the alien's government or country of residence, subject to a waiver. Directs the Secretary of Labor to establish a partnership program to award grants to eligible entities to carry out comprehensive programs to provide education to nurses and create a pipeline to nursing for incumbent ancillary health care workers who wish to advance their careers.

Date: 2008-04-29
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Veterans to Paramedics Transition Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to: (1) include among entities eligible for rural emergency medical service training and equipment grants entities that provide training for emergency medical services personnel, including institutions of higher education, technical colleges, community colleges, and other state-certified training entities; and (2) include among grant uses the provision of required coursework and training to enable military veterans to satisfy emergency medical services personnel certification requirements, as determined by the appropriate state regulatory entity.

Date: 2008-05-08
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Home-Based Health Services Job Training and Caregiving Act of 2008 - Amends the United States Housing Act of 1937 to require the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to establish a pilot program to make grants to eligible entities to promote the training and employment of public housing residents as home health aides and providers of home-based health services, in order for such residents to provide Medicaid-covered home-based health services to either elderly or disabled public housing residents, or both. Qualifies as an eligible entity any public housing agency, state or local government (or agency), community health center, home care provider organization, faith-based organization, labor organization, or other organization meeting specified criteria. Amends the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 to require the Secretary to: (1) ensure low- and very low-income persons, residing within a home-based health services public housing project, opportunities for training and employment arising in connection with such project; and (2) award contracts to businesses that provide such training and employment opportunities.

Date: 2008-05-13
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Amends part B (Supplemental Medical Insurance) of title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to ensure that all physicians, as defined for Medicare purposes (including doctors of dental surgery or of dental medicine, of podiatric medicine, or of optometry, and chiropractors), are permitted to perform required face-to-face examinations and prescribe Medicare-covered durable medical equipment (DME), prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (including motorized or power wheelchairs).

Date: 2008-05-21
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Veterans' Medical Personnel Recruitment and Retention Act of 2008 - Authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to appoint personnel for health care positions within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) not specifically listed as authorized categories for appointment, as long as the Secretary provides prior notification to the congressional veterans' committees and the Office of Management and Budget. Requires newly-appointed nurses to serve a probationary period. Authorizes the Secretary to: (1) appoint nurse assistants; and (2) waive required pay offsets for federal annuitants reemployed in VA health care positions. Sets the minimum rate of basic pay for appointees to certain positions in the Office of the Under Secretary for Health at the lowest rate of basic pay for a Senior Executive Service position. Allows for the payment of: (1) comparability pay of up to $100,000 annually for Office positions which are not physicians or dentists; and (2) special incentive pay of up to $40,000 annually to a VHA pharmacist executive. Removes or waives certain pay restrictions for: (1) physicians or dentists occupying administrative or executive leadership positions; (2) nurses; and (3) certified registered nurse anesthetists. Revises locality pay scale computations. Increases from $25,000 to $100,000 the special pay for nurse executives. Makes part-time nurses eligible for additional nurse pay. Provides limitations on overtime duty, weekend duty, and alternative work schedules for nurses, with exceptions for emergency situations. Reinstates the VA's health professionals educational assistance scholarship program, and increases maximum assistance amounts. Authorizes the Secretary to provide an educational loan repayment program for clinical researchers from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Date: 2008-05-22
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Caring for an Aging America Act of 2008 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) establish a Geriatric and Gerontology Loan Repayment Program to enter into contracts with physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, psychologists, and social workers trained in geriatrics or gerontology to pay educational loans in exchange for providing full-time clinical practice and service to older adults; and (2) establish the National Advisory Council on the Geriatric and Gerontology Loan Repayment Program.Requires the Secretary to ensure that individuals eligible for the nurse loan repayment program include registered nurses who complete specialty training in geriatrics or gerontology and who elect to provide nursing services to older adults in home and long-term care settings.Authorizes the Secretary to award nursing education grants and enter into contracts for programs that focus on specialty training in providing long-term care services for nursing personnel who provide services in home and long-term care settings.Requires the Secretary to establish a Health and Long-Term Care Workforce Advisory Panel to conduct a research project to identify incentives for recruitment and retention of clinicians and providers who agree to serve vulnerable older adults in geriatric and long-term care settings.

Date: 2008-06-20
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
21st Century Rural Health Care Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize appropriations for the National Health Service Corps for FY2009-FY2013.Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to define "accredited training program with an integrated rural track" to mean an accredited medical residency training program that is located in an urban area which offers a curriculum for family practice for all residents in the program and that meets certain requirements, including: (1) four month-long rotations in rural public health and community health settings; and (2) specified minimum training in obstetrics, pediatrics, and emergency medicine.

Date: 2008-06-23
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Veterans Health Scholarship Act of 2008 - Amends federal provisions concerning the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Professional Scholarship Program to: (1) continue the Program through 2012; and (2) establish a priority for applicants who are veterans.

Date: 2008-07-08
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, for a cost reporting period beginning on or after July 1, 2005, to provide for payments of direct graduate education costs under title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act in accordance with an alternative payment methodology for eligible hospitals in or adjacent to a major disaster area which have established a program to educate residents displaced from a graduate medical education (GME) program impacted by such disaster.

Date: 2008-07-10
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Primary Care Dental Academic Workforce Development Act of 2008 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to, or enter into contracts with, programs of general dentistry or pediatric dentistry to plan, develop, and operate a loan repayment program to pay student loans in exchange for service as full-time faculty members. Requires the Secretary to: (1) encourage participating programs to use support to broadly recruit diverse faculty; and (2) establish appropriate financial penalties for individuals not completing their service obligations.

Date: 2008-07-17
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Improving Dental Access in Underserved Communities Act of 2008 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize appropriations for FY2009-FY2013 for National Health Service Corps Scholarship and Loan Repayment programs. Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to reserve a portion of such funds for scholarships to individuals who are accepted for enrollment or enrolled in a course of study or program that leads to a degree in dentistry.Reauthorizes appropriations for FY2009-FY2013 for grants and contracts to: (1) assist schools in supporting programs of excellence in health professionals education for underrepresented minority individuals; and (2) assist individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds to undertake education to enter a health profession.

Date: 2008-07-24
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Nurses' Higher Education and Loan Repayment Act of 2008 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to enter into an agreement with eligible individuals for the repayment of education loans in exchange for working as a full-time member of the faculty of an accredited school of nursing.

Date: 2008-07-30
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Directs the Secretary to report quarterly to Congress describing any vacancy in a mental health professional position at any medical facility of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Date: 2008-07-31
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Health Workforce Investment Act of 2008 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to establish the National Health Workforce Advisory Council to make recommendations to relevant agencies and congressional committees on health workforce issues, including on: (1) the supply and distribution of the U.S. health workforce; (2) current and future shortages or excesses of health workforce professionals; (3) issues relating to foreign medical and nursing school graduates; and (4) deficiencies in existing databases concerning the supply and distribution of, and postgraduate training programs for, health workforce professionals. Requires the Council to encourage entities providing graduate medical education to conduct activities to voluntarily address health workforce issues.Establishes the National Center for Health Workforce Information and Analysis to conduct and support statistical and epidemiological activities for the purpose of assessing and improving the supply, distribution, diversity, and development of the health workforce in the United States. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to states for: (1) ensuring access to health services for all individuals, particularly those with low incomes or limited access to health services; (2) improving the supply, distribution, diversity, and development of the health workforce; and (3) creating state-specific health workforce goals and objectives consistent with health status goals and national health workforce objectives. Authorizes the Secretary to provide for research to identify best practices and innovative approaches to improving the health workforce.Requires the Secretary to develop national health workforce objectives.

Date: 2008-09-25
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Veterans Combat Stress Healthcare Improvement Act - Revises the veterans' health professionals educational assistance program to provide a selection priority under various program components for those seeking to obtain the specialized training necessary to treat combat stress. Provides a similar priority for individuals who have completed the degree requirements necessary for qualification as a licensed mental health professional, are employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in positions related to the treatment of combat stress, and owe any principal or interest on loans used to pay costs related to earning the degree. Reauthorizes the program's scholarship program for FY2009-FY2011.

Date: 2008-09-28
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Concussion Treatment and Care Tools Act of 2008 or the ConTACT Act of 2008 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to make grants to states for: (1) establishing, disseminating, and ensuring the implementation by schools of concussion management guidelines with respect to the prevention, identification, treatment, and management of sports-related concussions in student athletes, including standards for student athletes to return to play after a concussion; and (2) funding implementation by schools of computerized preseason baseline and post-injury neuropsychological testing for student athletes. Directs states to utilize, to the extent practicable, applicable expertise and services offered by local chapters of national brain injury organizations.Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director, to convene a conference of medical, athletic, and educational stakeholders to establish model concussion management guidelines with respect to student athletes.

Date: 2008-11-19
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Health Professions and Primary Care Reinvestment Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to revise provisions related to: (1) addressing workforce shortages for primary care health professions; and (2) assisting underrepresented minorities or disadvantaged students to enter health professions.Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) make grants for the training of primary care physicians teaching in community-based settings; (2) provide for programs that improve clinical teaching and research in primary care; (3) provide for community health needs assessments; (4) provide for the establishment of Primary Care Training Institutes within academic health centers; and (5) provide for approved professional training programs in the field of general or pediatric dentistry.Revises provisions governing area health education centers, including to require the Secretary to make awards to improve the effectiveness and capabilities of existing programs.Authorizes the Secretary to provide for the development and implementation of interdisciplinary training of psychology graduate students to provide behavioral and mental health services.Requires the Secretary to: (1) establish the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis; (2) designate regional workforce analysis centers; (3) award grants or contracts to regional centers for research on high-priority workforce questions; (4) provide for monitoring of the supply, need for, and diversity and distribution of health professionals; and (5) establish the Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Information, Evaluation, and Assessment.Requires the Secretary, acting in conjunction with the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to award competitive grants to establish Academic Health Departments to provide for collaboration between the academic and practice aspects of public health.

Date: 2008-11-20
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Rural Preventive Health Care Training Act of 2007 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants and enter into contracts for preventive health care training of rural health care practitioners.

Date: 2007-01-04
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Strengthen Social Work Training Act of 2007 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to include clinical psychology and social work programs among eligible health education programs for purposes of receiving grants to: (1) support programs for underrepresented minorities; (2) provide scholarships to disadvantaged students; and (3) offer faculty positions to disadvantaged students. Allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to, and enter into contracts with: (1) schools offering degrees in social work to provide support for geriatric training projects; (2) hospitals, schools, or other entities to plan or operate an approved social work training program and to provide financial assistance to program participants that are planning to specialize, work, or teach in the field of social work; and (3) schools offering social work programs to establish, maintain, or improve academic administrative units to provide clinical instruction in social work. Authorizes health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to offer health services through a clinical social worker as provided for under state law.

Date: 2007-01-04
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Education
Strengthen the Public Health Service Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to enter into an agreement for the establishment and operation of a student loan fund with any public or other nonprofit school that offers a graduate program in professional psychology. Revises provisions concerning the collection of health professions data, sex discrimination in medical education programs, and definitions to make these applicable to "professional" (rather than "clinical") psychologists.

Date: 2007-01-04
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Psychologists in the Service of the Public Act of 2007 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a psychology postdoctoral program to make grants to and enter into contracts with eligible individuals and institutions to encourage the provision of psychological training and services in underserved treatment areas. Requires individuals to possess a doctoral degree in psychology and to agree to provide services to a medically underserved population during the grant and at least one year thereafter. Requires institutions to use provided amounts for fellowships to such individuals.

Date: 2007-01-04
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2007 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to increase, over five cost reporting periods, the Medicare caps on the total number of full-time equivalent residents in the field of allopathic or osteopathic medicine (graduate medical education (GME) positions) for states with a shortage of residents. Requires the aggregate number of such increases for a state to be at least 15, but no more than the state resident cap increase.

Date: 2007-02-14
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Allied Health Reinvestment Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop public service announcements to promote the allied health professions. Requires the Secretary to award grants to promote such professions by: (1) supporting relevant state and local campaigns; (2) increasing education opportunities; (3) carrying out programs to facilitate the entry of students into relevant careers; (4) expanding enrollment into such programs; (5) providing education through new technologies and methods; (6) enhancing the workforce through retention programs; (7) developing retention strategies; (8) expanding area health education centers to develop models of excellence for such professionals; and (9) developing clinical education, internship, and resident programs that encourage mentoring and the development of specialties. Requires the Secretary, acting through the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to enter into agreements to establish faculty loan funds to increase the number of qualified allied health faculty. Requires the Secretary to: (1) provide scholarships to individuals seeking allied health education who agree to provide service in rural and other medically underserved areas with personnel shortages; (2) develop a system for collecting and analyzing workforce data to determine education pipeline and practitioner shortages and to project future needs for such a workforce; and (3) include allied health schools among the schools eligible to receive grants to support Centers of Excellence in health professions education for underrepresented minority individuals. Requires the Comptroller General to conduct an evaluation of whether this Act has demonstrably increased the number of allied health education program applicants.

Date: 2007-02-15
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Rural Nursing Promotion Act - Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a Nurse Distance Education Pilot Program through which grants may be awarded for activities to increase accessibility to nursing education in order to: (1) provide assistance to individuals in rural areas who want to study nursing to enable such individuals to receive appropriate nursing education; (2) promote the study of nursing at all educational levels; (3) establish additional slots for nursing students at existing nursing education programs; and (4) establish new nursing education programs at institutions of higher education.Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) report to Congress on the source of newly licensed nurses and physical therapists in each state; (2) contract with the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine to determine the necessary level of federal investment under the Public Health Service Act to eliminate the domestic nursing and physical therapist shortage; and (3) collaborate with other agencies in working with the five countries from which the most nurses and physical therapists arrived to address health worker shortages caused by emigration.Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to exempt aliens seeking U.S. entry to perform labor in shortage occupations from worldwide and per-country numerical limitations through September 30, 2017. Requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to provide for a process to review and make a determination upon a petition filed for immigrant status for such an alien within 30 days.

Date: 2007-02-15
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Patient-Focused Critical Care Enhancement Act - Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), to conduct research to assess: (1) the standardization of critical care protocols, intensive care unit layout, equipment interoperability, and medical informatics; and (2) the impact of differences in staffing, organization, size, and structure of intensive care units on access, quality, and efficiency of care. Requires the Secretary to undertake demonstration projects to: (1) optimize the provision of critical care services to Medicare beneficiaries through innovations in such areas as staffing and utilization of technology; and (2) measure and evaluate outcomes derived from a "family-centered" approach to the provision of inpatient critical care services that includes direct and sustained communication and contact with the beneficiary family members, involvement of family members in the critical care decisionmaking process, and responsiveness of critical care providers to family requests. Amends the Food, Agriculture, Conservation and Trade Act of 1990 to authorize appropriations for FY2008-FY2013 for augmenting the delivery of critical care services in the rural inpatient setting through the use of telecommunications systems that allow for consultation with critical care providers not located in the rural facility regarding the care of such patients. Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary to give preference in awarding telehealth grant funds to entities to develop plans for, or to establish, such critical care telehealth networks. Requires the Secretary to undertake an initiative to recruit providers of critical care services into the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program.

Date: 2007-02-28
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Veterinary Public Health Workforce Expansion Act of 2007 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to veterinary schools or institutions offering training for veterinarians to improve public health preparedness through increasing the number of veterinarians in the workforce. Requires the Secretary to give preference to applicants that demonstrate a comprehensive approach by involving more than one such school or institution.

Date: 2007-03-02
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Physician Shortage Elimination Act of 2007 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize appropriations for FY2008-FY2012 to: (1) carry out the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program and Loan Repayment Program to assure an adequate supply of physicians and other health professionals to provide primary health services; (2) assist schools in supporting programs of excellence in health professionals education for underrepresented minority individuals; and (3) assist individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds to undertake education to enter a health profession. Allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to community health centers to: (1) establish new or alternative-campus accredited medical residency training programs affiliated with a hospital or other health care facility; or (2) fund new residency positions within existing accredited medical residency training programs at the centers and their affiliated partners. Requires the Secretary to give preference to funding medical residency training programs focusing on primary health care. Allows the Secretary, acting through the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to make grants to community health centers to: (1) increase the number of medical service providers associated with such centers; and (2) increase primary health care capabilities through the construction, expansion, or renovation of facilities. Authorizes the Secretary to award grants to recipients of financial assistance for area health education center programs to improve the effectiveness of such programs. Amends title XVIII (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act to make changes to the direct and indirect graduate medical education provisions regarding costs for the training program for purposes of counting the number of residents in a non-hospital setting. Sets forth requirements for a medical residency training program to be considered an accredited training program with an integrated rural track.

Date: 2007-03-15
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Preventive Medicine and Public Health Training Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to award grants to or enter into contracts with certain eligible entities to provide training to graduate medical residents in preventive medicine specialties. Requires grant funds to be used for: (1) residency programs for preventive medicine or public health; (2) financial assistance to resident physicians who plan to specialize in preventive medicine or public health; (3) preventive medicine or public health program costs, including curriculum development and practicum costs; and (4) the improvement of academic administrative units.

Date: 2007-04-17
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Nursing Education and Quality of Health Care Act of 2007 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to, or enter into contracts with, schools of nursing, health care facilities, or partnerships of such schools and facilities to educate nurses to serve in rural areas and areas of nurse specialty shortage, including by developing distance learning education. Requires the Secretary, acting through the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to award grants to such schools, facilities, or partnerships for the establishment of demonstration projects that will expand the number of nurse faculty within schools of nursing, including by developing recruitment programs and offering scholarships. Allows the Secretary, in the case of a nurse faculty shortage, to obligate more than 10% of traineeships for advanced nursing education programs to individuals in doctoral degree programs. Requires the Secretary to: (1) award grants to, and enter into contracts with, eligible entities to increase the nursing opportunities for individuals who reside in rural communities, including by increasing and expanding pipeline programs and supporting a web-based health care workforce development system; (2) award grants to entities for demonstration projects that advance the education, delivery, or measurement of quality and patient safety in nursing practice; and (3) award grants to collect data and study the potential benefits of basic and advanced nursing education levels or certification status in the efforts to promote quality improvement strategies and enhance patient outcomes and cost saving measures.

Date: 2007-06-13
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Nurse Faculty and Physical Therapist Education Act of 2007 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Health Resources and Services Administration, to establish a Nurse Faculty Education Program to ensure an adequate supply of nurse faculty through awarding grants to eligible entities to: (1) hire new faculty, retain existing faculty, and purchase educational resources; (2) increase enrollment and graduation rates for students from doctoral programs; and (3) assist graduates in serving as nurse faculty in schools of nursing. Requires the Comptroller General to report on activities to increase participation in the nurse educator program. Requires the Secretary to establish a program to provide Geriatric Academic Career Awards to promote the career development of eligible individuals as geriatric nurse faculty. Requires the Secretary to establish a Nurse and Physical Therapist Distance Education Pilot Program to award grants for activities to increase accessibility to nursing and physical therapy education, including to: (1) assist individuals in rural areas who want to study nursing or physical therapy; (2) promote the study of nursing and physical therapy at all educational levels; (3) establish additional slots for nursing and physical therapy students at existing schools and programs; and (4) establish new nursing and physical therapy education programs at institutions of higher education Requires the Secretary to: (1) report on the country of origin or professional school of origin of newly licensed nurses and physical therapists in each state; and (2) contract with the Institute of Medicine to study the nursing and physical therapy workforce.

Date: 2007-06-14
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Surgeon General Integrity Restoration Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to establish a nomination procedure for selection of the Surgeon General. Requires the Institute of Medicine to submit to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the President a list of ten qualified nominees. Requires the Secretary to recommend one nominee from such list, or provide an explanation as to why each nominee is unsatisfactory. Requires the Surgeon General to submit an annual budget estimate. Authorizes the Surgeon General to: (1) submit a draft of a speech or report to the Secretary or any employee of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comment and to issue, deliver, or release such speech or report notwithstanding any comment or objection of the Secretary or any such employee; and (2) directly hire staff without otherwise obtaining clearance or undergoing review as generally required within HHS.Prohibits the censoring of any work product of the Surgeon General in any manner (except to comply with federal national security or privacy laws) by any federal entity or official for political reasons. Requires the Secretary to identify and separately label any supposed modifications to such a work product that the Surgeon General does not consent to accept.

Date: 2007-07-12
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health
Public Health Preparedness Workforce Development Act of 2007 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish the Public Health Workforce Scholarship Program to assure an adequate supply of public health professionals to eliminate critical public health preparedness workforce shortages in federal, state, local, and tribal public health agencies by offering four-year scholarships in return for employment at such agencies. Requires the Secretary to establish the Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program to provide for the repayment of loans incurred by individuals in the pursuit of the relevant public health preparedness workforce educational degree or certificate in exchange for working at such agencies for at least three years.Requires the Secretary to award grants to public health agencies that receive public health preparedness cooperative agreements from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to operate state, local, and tribal public health workforce loan repayment programs.Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to, or enter into contracts with, any eligible entity to award scholarships to eligible individuals to enroll in degree or professional training programs for the purpose of enabling mid-career professionals in the public health workforce to receive additional training in the field of public health preparedness or biodefense.Requires the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), in cooperation with the Secretary, to ensure that included in the OPM website there is an online catalogue, or a link to an online catalogue, of public health workforce employment opportunities in the federal government.

Date: 2007-07-26
Topic: Health (Manpower)
Subject: Health