<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><BillSummaries>
    <item congress="118" measure-type="hr" measure-number="3068" measure-id="id118hr3068" originChamber="HOUSE" orig-publish-date="2023-05-02" update-date="2024-01-12">
        <title>Equal Health Care for All Act</title>
        <summary summary-id="id118hr3068v00" currentChamber="HOUSE" update-date="2024-01-12">
            <action-date>2023-05-02</action-date>
            <action-desc>Introduced in House</action-desc>
            <summary-text><![CDATA[ <p><b>Equal Health Care for All Act</b></p> <p>This bill prohibits discrimination in health care based on race, religion, and other characteristics. It also revises reporting requirements, adds equity-related measures to certain Medicare programs, and makes other changes to reduce health disparities.</p> <p>To enforce the prohibition, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must establish an administrative process to resolve complaints about inequitable health care. HHS must investigate these complaints and mediate agreements to resolve issues. In the event of noncompliance with a mediated agreement, an aggrieved individual may bring a civil action.</p> <p>Health care providers must also report data in formats that allow disaggregation by demographic factors. HHS must issue proposed regulations to carry out this requirement within 90 days.</p> <p>Additionally, the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS) must include measures related to equitable health care in the Medicare value-based purchasing program for hospitals. This program provides incentive payments based on quality of care. The CMS may exclude providers that furnish inequitable health care from its programs.</p> <p>The bill also establishes (1) the Federal Health Equity Commission to monitor implementation of the bill, and (2) grants for hospitals to promote equitable health care.</p>]]></summary-text>
        </summary>
    </item>
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        <dc:language>EN</dc:language>
        <dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.</dc:rights>
        <dc:contributor>Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress</dc:contributor>
        <dc:description>This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.</dc:description>
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